


Hawaiian Corporate Retreat

by nomoretears24



Series: Exploring [3]
Category: Succession (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Business, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Love, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:34:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 58,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27982377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nomoretears24/pseuds/nomoretears24
Summary: The new Waystar 'Top Minds' go to Hawaii for a corporate retreat weekend as Roman and Gerri continue to manoeuvre and hide their secret relationship from everyone.Sequel to 'Exploring' and 'Scenes from a Fortune 500'.
Relationships: Gerri Kellman/Roman "Romulus" Roy
Series: Exploring [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991920
Comments: 37
Kudos: 29





	1. Friday Morning/Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

> REAL FUCKING QUICK:  
> I'm sure I'm sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong and I'm not vocal on Twitter, just a browser, but this Twitter shit about RomanGerri being an unhealthy relationship because she's harming him in a toxic manner is completely fucking bogus.  
> If you watch the fucking show it honestly seems like she's playing a kind of kinky role with him accidentally because she is literally like omg "you are disgusting" for masterbating on the phone to me and then he's like oft, "what else am I?" and she continues when she realises it turns him on, though she has no idea why she is. I'm pretty sure all the interviews say the same thing.  
> How the fuck is she supposed to know how fucked he is and why he's doing it, especially when we also don't know why. Everyone can speculate but when it comes to canon, no one fucking knows why they do what they do. So, people need to grow up and stop beating on other people who are for it.

The news from the EEOC that they had decided to take no further action had come on Thursday morning just as they had boarded. An absolute fucking relief to all of them. They had cited that the corporation as a whole had done everything within its power and limited knowledge of the circumstances with the procedures in place at the time and the rectification of the procedures since. The treatment of those who had suffered since her leadership had been described as “exemplary” – a personal win in her eyes.

However, the work had begun on the plane trying to get the feelers of what was going to happen in terms of criminal trials now. She had spent much of the time on the phone using her connections to get any kind of idea if they were planning on pursuing Logan and Karl. He had spent his time answering emails, arranging a meeting with Ken and Greg, scheduled for return from Hawaii to get the show on the road if it came down to it to get them to flip – not that Dana knew that. To her it just seemed as if he were deep in work.

Gerri had grown frustrated; the pilot asking her to cease using her phone as it had been creating interference on the radio. She had gained no information, being forced to answering the array of emails which had built up, unwilling to put any inquiries in writing. She would look into it tomorrow morning, though she felt unsettled without any further information.

He had encouraged her to see this EEOC decision as a win, attempting to change the general mood, though as tiredness had creeped in the later stages of the flight, it had become increasingly difficult; her mood becoming more solemn, her bottom lip a hostage between her teeth, her patience with his questions becoming shorter.

He had convinced both Dana and Gerri to take advantage of the beds for a few hours, whilst he had sprawled out on the couch.

**It hadn’t even been 12 hours since he had woken up in bed wrapped around her and yet the closeness of the past few days seemed a world away. He thought he had done well to focus himself though; had been successful in answering all of his emails, being a help to her, had been able to secure lunch with Ken and Greg already, and been able to casually bring it up in conversation so she knew his plans without alerting Dana. But he had to admit, just not being able to go and sit next to her, rub her back when she had seemed stressed, kiss her forehead when he had handed her a scotch he fixed her was fucking annoying. He wondered if she even needed it or if it was purely for his own benefit that he wanted to offer it.**

When they had gotten to the stunning villa, he had taken the stairs two at the time whilst Gerri and Dana had directed the luggage, exploring the various rooms downstairs. He slammed into all the bedrooms, frantically searching for any with adjoining doors, the closest being a joining bathroom. He successfully chose the smaller of the two, declaring his choice the second he had got downstairs.

“Well, I chose my room,” he smiles, when he walks out to the pool, watching them both standing looking at the beautiful view of the island in the distance.

“Master suite?” She raises an eyebrow as Dana smiles.

“The CEO gets the master suite, that’s the rules according to Mein Fuhrer, Logan Roy,” he booms in a deep voice, imitating his father.

“Who knew you were so considerate?”

“I mean, I choose the second coolest room with the sweet view so…. sorry Dana,” he smiles, fluttering his eyelashes at Dana.

“Hey, I’m so exhausted, as long as it has a bed, I don’t care at this rate,” Dana laughs, walking back into the villas they exchanged glances.

****

She discards her glasses onto the bedside table and is just settling into the pillow with a sigh when she hears the bathroom door opening behind her, the bed dipping as the air hits her back.

“Did you lock the door?” He asks as he presses up against her back, nestling into her, his arm wrapped firmly around her, his breath tickling her neck.

“Mhm,” is about all she can manage.

“Nearly 24 hours without touching you should be a crime,” he breathes against her neck before kissing it.

“You’re gonna have to get used to it,” she mumbles back, placing her hand on his and weaving their fingers together, her eyes still closed.

“No,” he whines, ever the brat.

“Maybe I should send you back to your room. Ration you so you don’t get reliant,” she smiles, though he can’t see, he can hear the teasing in her voice.

“Good luck enforcing that. You’ll never escape my death lock,” he declares, pulling her in closer, tightening his grip around her, breathing her in.

She hums, not moving a muscle, smiling as she enjoys feeling of him cuddling into her.

“You couldn’t get away from me,” he starts half singing in her ear.

“Roman,” she warns.

“You can climb the tallest tree,” he continues, mumbling into her neck.

“How do you even know that song?”

“Patti LuPone is a babe. Even I saw her in Gypsy. She loves me by the way. Said I’m a doll.”

“Go to sleep,” she orders dryly

“I’ll be there somehow,” he continues singing.

“Roman. Go to sleep or I’ll kill you,” she twists around pecking his lips quickly and then settling back into her pillow.

He smiles, pecks her shoulder and settles down before falling asleep soundly behind her.

They wake early from a long sleep, their early night working in their favour. He strolls around the villa, chatting with Dana as they relax on the loungers by the pool whilst Gerri stays in her room making the important phone calls she had missed out on yesterday.

She only appears when the motley crew arrive at 10am, pouring into the foyer, full of chatter and excitement, and Roman is there front and centre to greet them.

There’s a fair amount of decent people here.

Karolina, Cyd, Joan who took over Parks. He didn’t mind Larry, the new CFO; he was a little boring but bearable. At least he could talk about something other than fucking Shakespeare with him. Then there was Tom, who was okay he supposed. Still a fucknut but had been much more muted since the yacht; had definitely been laying low. But then there was Frank, Hugo, and Ray, who he fully could not be fucked with.

“There’s three more rooms upstairs,” Roman shouts over the crowd. “Otherwise, there are guesthouses outside. I’ve not seen them but from the pictures, they seemed decked out.”

“I’m not sleeping in a hut,” Cyd growls, moving towards the stairs which Gerri is leaning against the foot of.

“How about we let the ladies stay in the villa and we take the guesthouses guys?” Frank suggests chivalrously, as all the guys shrug, picking their bags up.

“I’m staying in the house,” Roman grimaces, pulling a face.

“That’s what he said. The ladies stay in the villa,” Ray laughs, elbowing Tom for approval, who laughs also.

“Oh, hardy har har har. Fucking original Ray,” Roman throws his hand up in the air, twinkling his fingers around. “Now we know why you need to pay for hookers. Your personality clearly isn’t pulling in the ladies. Obviously, your looks never did.”

“From what I’ve heard, neither is yours,” Ray fires back with raised eyebrows.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Gerri shouts, afraid of the way Roman’s stance is becoming more aggressive and where this conversation is leading. “Why don’t you all go get settled in? We have brunch planned for 11am here in the villa. Don’t worry you don’t need to bring your ideas to brunch. I’ll go through the itinerary then,” she smiles, taking a deep breath when everyone mumbles, picking up their luggage, making their way in the direction of wherever the fuck they’re going.

She watches as Roman stands seething at Ray about to open his mouth.

“Roman,” she shouts over the bustle, as he turns towards her, his eyebrows still furrowed. “Why don’t you go show everyone upstairs where the vacant rooms are whilst I check on the caterers?”

He nods, leading the way up the stairs.

“These better be comfortable beds or I’m holding you responsible,” she hears Cyd growl at Roman.

“Want me to test the mattress out for you? Have a pillow fight before brunch?”

“In your best fucking wet dreams,” Cyd laughs.

Brunch is a lavish affair, the drinks already flowing, the copious amounts of food being devoured.

_She doesn’t know how to do this. She was so used to being a spectator at these events, rather than the leader at them. Give her a room of 30 employees to discuss a legal strategy and she was more than comfortable. Give her a room of 10 people, some of which she has known for over 30 years, to discuss how to have fun and she was lost at sea. This was more Roman’s angle. He was the fun merchant. But she had to be seen as a leader. It was her intention to try and seem more approachable, more fun on this trip, so that people didn’t feel the usual foreboding, nervous energy they had felt on most other corporate retreats. The usual dread that Logan would create as though they were waiting for the moment they would be tripped up, made a fool of, or put on the spot to come up with some life changing strategy for the corporation. Austria had been the worst of them all. Most of the others there had just been pressure and forced time together doing an activity, but boar on the floor had been a new level. She was determined that they would never have to go through that again. Not only was it counterproductive, but it was horrifying on every level._

“Okay guys!” She shouts over the table, ready to make her speech. “I’m not going to stand or anything. I want this to be as informal as possible. First off, I just wanted to welcome some new faces who haven’t been on our corporate retreats before. Obviously, we have Larry, our new CFO, who did a great job previously under Karl. Then we have Joan who was promoted up to head of Parks after Tom left after how many years with the company now Joan?”

“39 years,” she declares as there is a small clap from people.

“39 years. Will need to arrange something special for next year. And last but not least we have Dana who came over from News and is going to be the head of our newly developed Airline division since our acquisition of Ace Airlines. Obviously, there have been a lot of changes in the past year so I’m sure you will all be happy to help the guys out if they have any questions, and of course, both Roman and I will be available to help around the clock.”

Larry, Joan, and Dana all nod thankfully, picking at their plates as they smile at the people around the table.

“Secondly, I just wanted to inform anyone that might not have already heard that we heard back from the EEOC yesterday and Waystar has been cleared of any wrongdoing.”

“Good,” is rhymed off from Cyd, whilst the Tom gives a small cheer, everyone else offering comments amongst themselves.

“Yeah, so this retreat couldn’t have come at a better time. A great new start. For you guys who haven’t been on a corporate retreat before, they were often surrounded by some kind of activity that we all had to partake in,” Gerri continues until Cyd interrupts.

“Yeah, if we were allowed to. We weren’t even invited to the boar hunt.”

“I mean, did you want to? It sounds horrible,” Joan comments until Gerri takes back the reins.

“And then there would be awkward introductions and discussion of strategy. But this year we thought Hawaii would be a great idea for a corporate retreat; just being able to relax and chill out, get away from the stress from work for a few days, and just naturally get to know each other. So, a huge thank you to Roman,” she says looking at him, “for idealising coming here and organising this beautiful villa with the help of Karolina,” she looks to Karolina smiling also. A small round of applause pipes up as Karolina smiles bashfully, Roman standing and bowing.

“I’d like to thank my brother for betraying my father and, uh,” Roman begins before Gerri cuts him off before he can go any further.

“You likely will have seen the copious amounts of activities that are available to us over the next few days from the information sheet Roman had sent out. There’s everything from water sports, to golf, to the spa, and I want everyone to know that we aren’t going to force you into doing any of them. It’s up to you what you want to do. I would obviously prefer if you can arrange amongst yourselves to do activities together as the whole point of this is bonding,” she smiles, laughing awkwardly.

“I will do anything Frank isn’t doing,” Roman declares seriously, holding his hand up as everyone laughs.

“Then I will do everything Roman wants to do,” Frank retorts with a wry smile to Roman, who rolls his eyes in return pulling a face, which equally earns them a laugh, Gerri included.

“But yeah, if you all want to do the same activities, try and do them together. I think I’m going to hit the spa today, if anyone wants to join me?”

“Yeah, I’ll go,” Dana declares enthusiastically.

“Count me in,” Cyd growls.

“I want to go windsurfing. Anyone want to do that?” Roman asks. “Not you Frank.”

“Like hell would I windsurf. I want to play golf,” Frank declares. “Larry? Hugo? Want to do that?”

Larry and Hugo agree with a nod as Joan pipes up.

“I’ve never been windsurfing! I’ll go!”

Roman is shocked. Joan was in her 70s, her hair pure white, a cute older lady, though likely a babe in her day; not that he could remember her at all from that time period. Kind of like a Julie Walters is how he would describe her. She was spunky, a bit flirty, up for anything obviously, and Roman liked that about her.

“Yes, Joan!” He shouts, standing up and offering a high five which she returns enthusiastically.

“I’ll go windsurfing,” Tom pipes up.

“Yeah, same,” Ray agrees, earning a rolling of Roman’s eyes.

Gerri eyes Karolina, hoping she too will join in.

“Yeah, I’ll go windsurfing,” Karolina chimes in.

“Yes. Windsurfing squad!” Roman declares.

“Great. That’s settled. The only thing I would like for everyone to do together is dinner each evening,” Gerri begins speaking again.

“We’ve arranged to go to a local place tonight. They are supposed to have great food and entertainment,” Karolina smiles, looking at everyone enthusiastically, as the continue picking at their plates.

“Brilliant. The only other thing is on Sunday morning I’ve set aside a couple of hours for a little strategy,” Gerri explains, receiving a choir of groans in response.

“I know, I know. I know I told you all to bring a little homework, but it’s not compulsory to bring an idea to the table. It’s just your opportunity to bring some ideas to us on how to expand or fine tune any part of this organisation either within or out with your own departments with no judgment and in a less serious setting. It’s not going to be a 300-slide power point from me droning at you. It’s a brain storming event. An opportunity for you to give us any feedback on any aspect of the business also and then we can get back to activities immediately after.”

“Sounds great,” Dana smiles eagerly, Gerri giving her a thankful smile.

“So, how does this work? We call someone to tell them or?” Cyd asks.

“Just let me know and I will set up the whole thing,” Roman offers, pulling his phone out.

“Great. We want this to be a fun weekend for once so let’s try and keep any tension to a minimum, okay? Be considerate,” Gerri looks pointedly at Roman, who looks down, nodding.

“Okay, how about we all go get ready and meet down here in 15 minutes then? Sound good?” Gerri suggests as chair legs begin scraping against the tiled floors, people already splitting into little groups and chatting about their activities as Gerri makes her way towards Karolina, pulling her aside away from earshot.

“Keep an eye on Roman and Ray, would you? Last thing we need is for a fight to break out between them,” she says raising her eyebrows knowingly to Karolina, who nods.

“Sure, but maybe you should have a word with him too since you know,” Karolina challenges Gerri with a shrug and a knowing smile.

“Uhu,” Gerri answers, pulling her lip between her teeth before making her way directly upstairs as Karolina follows.

She had already anticipated going to the spa today, a loose-fitting dress already having been donned this morning, her comfortable flat shoes already on. She grabs her purse, throwing in all the things she thinks she may need, removing her glasses in favour of her prescription sunglasses which she places on top of her head before moving through the bathroom into Roman’s room.

“Madam! It is polite to knock!” He shouts dramatically, holding his t-shirt up over his bare chest.

“Shut up. People will hear you,” she smiles, perching on the edge of his bed as he laughs, throwing the t-shirt on over his head.

“Couldn’t keep away from me,” he suggests, leaning down over her to kiss her lips. “Your dress is fucking beautiful. I can’t wait to tear it off,” kissing along her jaw. “Let’s just do it quickly just now. Get it out of the way.”

“Roman,” she warns, tilting her head back as he towers over her, her hands still firmly on her purse.

“Come on. We have 15 minutes. I can get you off in that time,” he mumbles into her neck.

“Roman,” she pushes him back, smiling seductively up to him. “We agreed on a no touching rule through the day,” she cautions him with a quirked eyebrow.

“Ugh!” He shouts, standing up to look for his shoes. “So, what happened with the phone calls this morning? Any news?”

“Ehm… nothing specific. Obviously, they have both already been charged anyway but I think some of the information was revealing. I think they want it over with as soon as possible which is good but nerve wracking. Karl’s lawyers will likely start with the interviews for some evidence of Logan’s boorish behaviour, so good thinking on the meetings with Greg and Ken next week. We will likely need to figure out if we want to speak to Tom at some point as well.”

“Yeah, Shiv’s a flip risk. She will definitely tell dad,” he determines, standing in the middle of the room with his hands on his hips.

“Maybe we just need to do some digging this weekend to see what the status of their relationship is. Tom’s afraid of Logan so I doubt he would have anything to do with it anyway.”

“I can feel him out,” he promises.

“Okay,” she says gently, biting her lip as she watches him renew his interest in finding his shoes.

_She doesn’t know how she’s going to warn him about Ray. She knows she has to do it delicately or he would just be a brat about it._

“Rome,” she begins softly. “You need to be careful with Ray.”

“He’s a dick,” Roman comments absently, rifling through his suitcase, throwing various pieces onto the bed.

“You didn’t unpack?”

“Was I supposed to?” Roman fires back, finding the shoes he was looking for.

She huffs, rolling her eyes, standing up and picking up pieces now sprawled across the bed, beginning to sort them into categories to put away as he sits on the bed watching her.

**It’s so fucking domestic. He could pack it himself. Would have done eventually. But there is something about Gerri just naturally doing it for him that makes his stomach flip flop.**

“I’m serious, Rome. I want this weekend to go well. The last thing we need is for you and Ray to be at each other’s throats.”

“I can do that, but someone needs to tell that to him.”

“Ray’s a moron. You’re not. It reflects badly on you too if this weekend goes to shit. You’re the one who organised it,” she reasons, picking up a bundle of t-shirts to place in a drawer.

He only offers a groan in response, struggling with his shoe.

“All I am suggesting is that you don’t goad him, and you don’t bite. That’s what he wants.”

“Okay. Fine,” he whines, finally having got his shoes on as she continues putting items away.

“And keep an eye on Joan. I don’t want her to break something,” Gerri says making a final lap to the wardrobe to hang up various jackets.

“Oh my god, how neat was that? She’s like, what? In her 70’s and wants to try windsurfing. She’s cool as fuck,” he says enthusiastically, lying back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

_She doesn’t know why it stings. Like she isn’t cool because she doesn’t want to throw herself around on a surfboard in the ocean. Like she can’t keep up with his high paced activities when a woman 10 years her senior is. The idea of her cautiousness being a turn off to him, whilst he fawns over Joan being adventurous makes her the slightest bit unsettled._

“Or she has a death wish. She’s going to end up with a new hip by the end of this weekend,” she aggressively puts a jacket on the hanger, slamming it onto the rail.

“Then she’d be half bionic. Could probably windsurf even better after that.”

“Why are you so impressed?”

“Because it’s like dangerous and she’s never done it before, and she just jumped into it. It’s pretty cool, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think she will be in much danger. If she’s never been on a surfboard, she will spend most of the time trying to get used to balancing. Then sailing isn’t easy into the mix,” she tells him, biting a little.

“Yeah, I suppose.”

“You know, apparently windsurfing isn’t that dangerous. Apparently, scuba diving is though,” she tells him, attempting to sound as nonchalant as possible. “Because if the equipment fails and then there’s the increased water pressure. Compression. Decompression. Dangerous fish. Sharks.”

“Yeah. I never thought of it. I’ve been cliff jumping. That was fucking crazy but like exhilarating as well. No feeling like it.”

“Yeah, probably because you could fucking kill yourself. It’s all over the news all the time with kids dying from doing it.”

“I wouldn’t do it now, but I did when I was younger. Will need to stick to scuba diving to get my kicks,” he jests, leaning on his side now looking at her, quirking his eyebrows up and down. “You still want to do it?” He asks her challengingly.

“I thought we could go tomorrow. There isn’t much else I’d like to do. I like the idea of just relaxing but I did enjoy it in Thailand.”

“Tomorrow is fine with me. I’d like to go parasailing. How do you feel about parasailing?”

“Never tried it,” she shrugs, closing the wardrobe doors over and walking towards him.

“Do you wanna?” He challenges, wrapping his arm around her waist when she sits next to him. “You don’t even touch the water.”

_She thinks about it. Considers Joan and her boldness and how it had impressed him. How she had been trying to be more adventurous and how he had been bringing her out of that shell._

“Yeah. I can do parasailing,” she agrees, combing her hand through his hair.

“Great. Well, maybe we can do the parasailing on Sunday because I wanted to do water skiing so I can do that on the boat after? I will ask.”

“Water skiing sounds dangerous, Rome,” she tells him, a worried look crossing her face.

“I’ve done it a thousand times. It will be fine,” he laughs, kissing against the fabric at her thigh.

“Mmm… okay.”

“How about you suggest the parasailing later and I will suggest you come with me then? Will offer to do it with you?”

“All right. I was thinking if everyone was up for it then maybe we could get everyone down to the beach tomorrow before we go scuba diving? Maybe get beach volleyball going or something? Frank and Karl seemed to enjoy it when we did it in the pool.”

“I like the idea of going to the beach, but I don’t know about the beach volleyball. Half of them are old as fuck. They might need to water for better leverage,” he laughs.

“Hey!” She slaps the back of his head. “As someone in that category, I take offence.”

He rolls over to straddle her, lying her back on the bed, kissing her lips softly.

“I’ve seen the way you can contort yourself in a bed, Kellman. I was in no way placing you in that category,” he growls, kissing her lips as his fingers run up her arms to push them above her head.

“No touching rule,” she whispers breathily, weaving her fingers through his hands above her head.

“Fuck that rule. It’s an unachievable target when you’re sitting here looking so fucking enticing,” he says moaning into her mouth as she returns the kiss with fervour.

“Roman!” He hears Karolina knocking on the door loudly. “Roman, are you ready?”

“Fuck, the doors not locked” he groans, jumping up offer her quickly as she sits up, pressing her skirt down and standing.

“Just coming,” he says in a strangled response.

“Okay!”

She picks up her purse, offering a light peck before sauntering to the bathroom connecting their rooms.

“See you later, Rockstar. Come back in one piece,” she throws over her shoulder.

“It’s you who has to make sure you come back thoroughly recharged from your day at the spa because I’m holding you to that promise tonight.”

“You broke the rules,” she smiles as she’s about to close the door.

“That doesn’t fucking count!” He protests wildly, pointing to the bed.

“Mmm, I’ll think about it,” she offers a final wry smile before closing the door firmly.

“Fucking siren,” he whispers to himself as he heads to the door to go downstairs.

****

Windsurfing turns out to be fucking epic. Luckily Ray doesn’t get on his nerves too fucking much, Karolina often stepping in to distract the conversation, just as he is ready to knock the prick into the sea and drown him.

He keeps an eye on Joan who enthusiastically tries to balance on the board, cracking jokes left, right, and centre about how shit she is; allowing the instructor to help her. She is full of flirtatious jokes, bordering harassment with the instructor when he tries to help improve her stance, pressing up against her back. Something Roman and Karolina can’t help but howl at. **Who knew Joan was such a character?**

She finally gets the hang of it, the bar being a huge help. He can’t imagine what she would have been like with normal surfing. She stays shallow with the instructor whilst the rest of them go deeper, Karolina keeping up with him until he tries to ride the waves. Tom whizzing around also, whilst Ray falls off when he’s hit by a particularly strong wave, unable to manoeuvre through it properly. He can’t help pointing and laughing at him, both Tom and Karolina joining in heartily.

**He wishes Gerri were here. Wishes she would have seen it. But she was probably fucking loving the relaxation from the spa though he can’t wait to tell her all about this when he gets back.**

“You okay, Roman?” Karolina asks him when they are walking up the beach back to the cars as Tom, Ray, and Joan trail behind them.

“Yeah, why’d you ask?”

“Just wondering. You seem a little… I don’t know. Solemn?”

He coughs uncomfortably, “no, I’m fine.”

“You know I know, right?” She approaches delicately and can’t help noticing how twitchy he becomes.

“About what?” He answers, his voice rising in pitch.

“Gerri.”

He sighs deeply, looking over his shoulder, ensuring there is no one within earshot.

**He doesn’t know how comfortable Gerri would be with him discussing them with her. He doesn’t think she would like it at all. Plus, he’s never talked about it out loud with anyone before. Apart from the anonymous woman chat with Kendall the night he got drunk, but that didn’t count.**

“Yeah, I know you know,” he says quickly.

“Is it that? Is that why you’re suddenly moping?”

“Is it obvious? Am I that obvious?”

“No, you’ve actually both been pretty good since I talked to Gerri about _the looks_ ,” she laughs.

“Thank fuck. I’m sure Gerri will enjoy that report back.”

“I assume I’m the only person who knows.”

“Yeah,” he drones with a sigh.

“You want to talk about it?”

“Mmm… I don’t know,” he says as she steps up into the car whilst he watches. 

“Well, the offer is always there,” she smiles.

“Why are you being so nice?” He asks when he sits up next to her, the other three moving to the car behind them as their car door closes. “I’ve made your job a fucking misery over the years so why would you want to help me?” He asks sceptically.

“Yeah, you’re a pain in the ass at times but you mean well. You’ve made a lot of changes since Logan was out. Both of you. The vibe in the office is so different. Everyone is noticing it. See it as me being selfish. If you guys are happy, we all are,” she nudges him with a laugh, as he chuckles a little. “You’re both good people and my own personal reality show is playing out before me. Hidden love story in big corporation. I’m getting ahead of the story in case it hits the press,” she laughs again.

“It’s going to hit the press?”

“No,” she huffs with a laugh. “No one suspects anything. I think I would be the first to know if they did. I’m the kind face everyone wants to tell their secrets to.”

“Well, I can’t mention names,” he trails off, looking at the driver. “But, what do you want to know?”

“Well, how’s it going? Why are you walking around like you got all your toys taken off you?”

“It’s going great. Well, as great as it can in the current situation.”

“Because it’s a secret?”

“Yeah. We’ve hardly seen each other outside work because of the press and then because we could be spotted. We can’t really talk about anything but work inside it because we don’t want anyone to know and the whole place is probably bugged.”

“Probably,” Karolina reasons.

“But we’ve had a few times in London when it was just normal. Like a normal couple. And it’s been pretty fucking great, but it makes going back to reality a bit harder, you know?”

“I get that. Have you considered going public? I did bring it up to her. I don’t think it would be as crazy as you guys think. Everyone would be over it pretty quickly.”

“Ehm… yeah. I think that’s the plan eventually. We are waiting until…” he pauses, realising she knows nothing about the plan for his dad. “Ehm… we think it would be better when this stuff with Waystar and my dad stops flaring up in the press. Don’t want to draw too much attention, ya know?”

“Yeah, that’s smart. She’s smart, so I’m sure she’s thought everything out.”

“Yeah. She is that,” he agrees absently.

“Well, if there is anything I can do to help. If you need an alibi or if you want me to start doing late night working at one of your apartments instead of the office for an excuse, then I can help with that. I’d rather work on a sofa than in a shitty swivel chair anyway. But you guys are paying for the dinners,” she nudges him with her elbow again and laughs.

“Karolina, I would buy you a fucking car if you did that, fuck the dinners.”

“I’ll think about it,” she teases. “You’re right about the paparazzi though. I don’t think they are watching but we live in the city and you are definitely an established face, whilst she is an up and coming one. Any passing pap would take their opportunity if they see you both in an, uhm…, intimate setting.”

“Yeah, we are super aware of that. Overly cautious.”

“Good. So, otherwise, it’s going well?”

“Yeah. Surprisingly well. A few hiccups but that happens with everyone.”

“Oh, yeah. My husband and I broke up three times before we got married.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she laughs. “Over completely stupid shit as well. But everything is always so intense when you first start and then it just becomes… more comfortable.”

“Right,” he thinks, his eyebrows furrowed.

“I think you two are actually pretty great together. When you initially think about it, it doesn’t really make sense, but knowing both of you the way I know you and after everything I’ve seen over the years, it makes sense.”

“I just can’t believe it’s happened. Like,” he pauses and looks to Karolina who’s looking at him with an encouraging smile. “She’s, you know, her. And I’m… me. Like she’s in a different league. But she just gets me. No one’s ever got me, ya know? I’m just so,” he sighs, “happy.”

Karolina offers him a huge smile.

“You’ve changed, Roman. You’ve matured a lot. She’s changed too. I think without you she would have struggled under the pressure, but you bring a lot of fun. You always have. But she’s made a great leader thus far and you’ve been supportive and conscientious too. You both make a great team.”

**Rockstar and the Molewoman.**

He grins broadly, can’t wait to see her now.

**Just that little bit of feedback has brought him so much hope for him. He’s not used to the praise but it’s so amazing to have it from someone who’s competent. Of course, Gerri has always praised him, but it’s different when it’s someone who doesn’t have to be encouraging. Someone else acknowledging that they make a great team. Someone else acknowledging that he actually has a positive effect on Gerri. He always felt it was so one sided. That he just took and took from her. So, to hear that he had a positive effect was pretty fucking exhilarating.**

“Thanks Karolina. I appreciate it. You don’t get enough credit, you know? You’re fucking great at your job. My dad always overlooked you.”

“Thanks Roman.”

****

She had had such a glorious afternoon. Undergoing a deep tissue massage in complete tranquillity, in an open-ended hut, allowing her to hear only beautiful sounds of windchimes, the crashing waves, then the soft breeze upon her back also. She couldn’t help the escape of the groans that came out of her when the young girl had got to the nitty gritty within her shoulders, the tension building up there for months now like nothing she has ever experienced before.

She hadn’t realised how much it had built up. The stress hadn’t seemed so bad to her, she felt she had been more stressed when she was having to gauge Logan on a daily basis after his heart attack; having to determine constantly if she was going to be able to do her job openly or evade him and do it delicately. But CEO was clearly more responsibility and saving a dying organisation came with its challenges. It was a different kind of stress. Clearly a literal weight on her shoulders. She thinks it’s seemed a little better because she’s had such a great team at her disposal whom she could easily collaborate and rely upon. Frank, Karolina, Cyd, Joan, and now Dana in the mix. She felt they were all people she could trust to be competent, her role with them merely being advisory and strategizing with them whilst they implemented it all. It had been a huge relief, allowing them the empowerment that Logan often didn’t favour.

Then there was Roman. He had been a godsend. Not only to the organisation but to her personally. How easily his innovation had come about had been a shock to her. She had thought she would have had to extract the ideas and concentration out of him, but it seems he had taken to it eagerly.

She had spent many nights as she was going to sleep trying to determine what had been the factors that had caused such a change in him.

Had he been doing it simply to try and impress her?

Had he had these ideas within him this whole time?

Had he simply been allowed to thrive now that the intimidation from his dad wasn’t there?

Was it simply a healthier environment for him to work under?

A part of her believes it’s a little bit of all of that. Predominantly that his dad wasn’t around to berate him for any potential idea. She knows that Roman has always had it in him. She had seen glimmers of it before she had first started to take him under her wing. He had ideas and he so desperately wanted to succeed, but he didn’t have the fine tuning he needed to flourish. But not only that, she had never even considered the massive effect he has had on her also. He had been there since day one to encourage her to wind down, to provide her with a thought and a conversation that wasn’t about Waystar, a trusted sounding board when she needed one, to make her leave the office when she was there until stupid o’clock; then his ability to be serious when necessary and yet playful and impish when the tension needed cut. Not to mention it had been a welcome and unexpected change to have someone to be tender with, to spend time with, be sassy, be intimate and adventurous with.

The thought makes her smile as she sits dreamily in a robe relaxing with Cyd and Dana who are talking animatedly, as they sip champagne, taking in the view whilst they take a moment relaxing before their facials begin.

She feels very lucky.

****

They had all agreed to meet in the foyer at 6.30pm to go to the local restaurant. She gone straight to her room, relaxed in a bath for half an hour and had decided to don a floaty dress this evening. She had put on little makeup, careful not to counteract anything the facial may have achieved earlier. But she felt very refreshed and light after a day of pampering and that was exactly the desired effect.

She doesn’t see Roman until she runs into him when she’s closing the door behind her to her room and he is entering his.

“I see you survived,” she smiles, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Disappointed?” He quirks an eyebrow, with a lopsided smirk she wants to kiss off his face.

“Not really. Someone has to hold up Ray on the way back tonight,” she smirks back.

“Like fuck will that be me. Let Wambsgans do it,” he fires back.

“Did Joan break anything?”

“She did not. Her hip bone is still thriving,” he smiles, noting the challenging tone in her question.

“Good.”

“Hey, I forgot I wanted to show you something Waystary,” he suggests unconvincingly, opening his door, beckoning her in with is head.

“I really have to get downstairs, I...,” she begins before he cuts her off.

“We aren’t supposed to meet up for a half hour. Come on. It won’t take a minute,” he encourages, his eyes glistening as he looks at her in that devouring way.

“Only a minute,” she warns, entering the room behind him, as he already closes the door, pulling her wrist and directly into his chest.

“Missed you,” he whispers, heading for her lips.

“Uh-uh,” she shakes her head, her hand and purse firmly pressed on his shoulder. “I have lipstick on.”

He frowns, moving to kiss her cheek, running his kisses down to her jaw.

“Your skins so fucking soft,” he mumbles, as his hands move down to her behind.

“Roman,” she breathes provocatively, though it was supposed to be a warning.

“And you smell so good. What’s that smell?”

“I don’t know. They used their own special Hawaiian herbal mixture. Gave me some to take away for my bath,” she tells him as she leans her neck harder into his lips, her hand pressing against the back of his head.

“It’s fucking great. Like aloe vera mixed with some shit,” he mumbles, attempting to taste it at the crux of her neck.

“Rome, I thought we agreed on no touching,” she pathetically protests.

“I reiterate that that’s a stupid fucking rule,” he mumbles back up her neck towards her jawline. “How about no touching unless we’re alone. That’s a better rule.”

She hums lightly in agreement, not understanding why she is so turned on right now.

“Do you want me to not touch you at all for the next few days?” He pulls back, looking at her seductive eyes, knowing the answer already.

“No,” she whispers.

“Did you miss me?” He asks, lightly pecking her lips so nothing can transfer.

“I mean, I enjoyed the tranquillity and some time chatting with the girls, but I did spare you a thought,” she smirks, answering honestly.

“Oh really? What did you think of whilst a nice lady was running her hands over your body?” He laughs, kissing her soft cheek again.

“How much you’ve grown. What a massive difference you’ve made to this CEO experience for me,” she pulls back, smiling at him as she runs her hands across his shoulders.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she breathes, brushing his hair from his face. “You’ve been a real asset to the organisation and to me personally. Don’t think I could have done it without you,” she smiles.

“Yeah, you could have,” he laughs.

“Yeah, I could have,” she repeats, laughing with him. “But I would have been a hundred times more stressed and it would have been a hundred times more boring.”

“I’ll take that,” he says pressing his lips firmly to hers, not giving a shit if it transfers, though he’s aware not to move his mouth in any way so it doesn’t ruin her look.

She pulls back quickly, tapping his shoulders.

“You little shit. I told you not to,” she warns with mirth to her tone as she moves towards the bathroom to check the lipstick.

“I couldn’t help myself,” he says as he whips the t-shirt up over his head, beginning to reflect on her compliments. “You know, Karolina said something similar today. Said we made a good team. Said I had a good effect on you,” he smiles, remembering the compliment. She stops dead, turning around to him, leaning on the sink as he stood there glassy eyed.

“You were talking to Karolina about me?”

“No, it wasn’t like that. I was feeling a bit shitty and she guessed it was because of you and said I could talk to her about it at any point I wanted to.”

“Why would you feel shitty about me and why would she know it was because of me by looking at you?” She fires back raising her voice as his expression turns to fear.

“No, no. This is coming out wrong. I was… I was just feeling a bit shitty because I was having a good time and I missed you and Ray fell off his board and I wished you were there with me to see it. That’s all. She obviously saw me looking like a sad puppy and guessed it was that. It wasn’t, like, sinister!”

“Roman. I like my private life being private. I always have. Even with Baird. We never discussed our relationship with anyone, especially in Waystar!” She scolds, crossing her arms over her chest.

“But it’s Karolina! You like Karolina! She's just trying to help. She even said that she would help us out,” he offers.

“Why would she need to help us out? What help do we need? What the fuck did you tell her?!” She shouts, her voice becoming higher with each question.

“Wow, calm down, will you?” He asks her, taking her hand as she retracts it, her expression fixed and stern, her hip biting into the sink as he turns in a circle exasperated and paces back into the room.

_How could he have spoken to someone else about their relationship? Was he complaining about her now? And to Karolina? They fucking worked together. It was so inappropriate. She had to look that woman in the eye every day now._

“Gerri. Fuck,” he growls.

“What did you tell her?” She repeats angrily.

“I only told her that we’ve hardly seen each other outside of work and that it's been difficult. That we had a few days in London which were great and that made it harder to come back to reality.”

“Roman,” she groans, dropping her face into the palms of her hands.

“Look! It’s not that bad. She said that we'd been doing better with the looks and shit. We should be using her as an objective party to make sure that we come across well anyway. She said no one suspects us.”

She looks back up to him, her expression still pointed.

“She wants to help us. She said that she was up for doing late nights in our apartments to work instead of at the office, so it didn’t look so obvious if we want to see each other. Said she would be an alibi. Then she suggested going public again, but I told her that we didn’t want to bring any further publicity to the company until after all the shit with my dad is over,” he tells her as her eyes widen. “And no, I didn’t fucking tell her about the shit with my dad before you ask,” he adds angrily.

“What else did she say?”

“She said that she thought you would have struggled with the pressure of the CEO job if it weren’t for me.”

“Oh, did she now?” She responds furiously, completely ignoring that she thought the exact same thing only a few hours ago.

“Yeah, but only to compliment me, because she said I bring a lot of fun! She also said you’re a great fucking leader and we make a great team! That us as a couple makes a lot of sense! She said we're good people and the changes we've made since my dad fucked off has changed the whole vibe of the office in a good way and that everyone's noticing it. She’s a nice fucking person, Gerri. She’s on your side! On our side!” He tells her exasperated as her stomach sinks.

_She feels so torn. She’s angry about this whole situation but the compliments were encouraging. She just wishes she had them not within this fucking situation._

“That’s all well and good but Roman, you can’t go around sharing all of our personal issues. If you have anything you want to talk about, you talk to me,” she reiterates.

“I do talk to you about it! I told you I was struggling with it, that I didn’t want to leave London behind!”

“Yeah, you did and then you also went and complained about it someone else when I thought we had fixed it.”

“I wasn’t fucking… ugh!” He throws his hands up in the air frustratedly. “So… what're you saying? That I’m never allowed to talk to anyone about you even when we do go public?” He shouts.

She huffs, moving over to the shower and pulling it on, listening as the water loudly hits the base whilst she gestures for him to enter the bathroom, which he does so willingly. She closes the door firmly behind him as he sits on the closed toilet seat, his head in his hands.

“I’m not fucking saying you can’t ever talk about me. I’m saying that I'm a private person and I don’t want people knowing our personal business. It’s not who I am, Roman. I don’t want people to know that we're pining over each other because we’re in a secret fucking relationship. This isn’t a romantic comedy. This is a real-life relationship with real-life consequences.”

“You were the one who confirmed it to Karolina! I thought you trusted her! I didn’t think it would be an issue.”

“I trust her to keep the secret, not to know every little feeling I’ve ever had.”

“I didn’t talk about your feelings. I talked about mine. And it wasn’t a big three-hour long conversation. It was brief. Like five minutes.”

She huffs, looking down at him, leaning her hand against the sink again as she considers him.

_She doesn’t know how to go further with this. She’s angry but it’s done now. She would maybe just need to do damage control later. But right now, she didn’t know what to say._

“Look, I think you should get ready. We’re due downstairs any minute now,” she offers, picking up her purse.

“Don’t be mad,” he groans exasperated, watching as she reaches for the door handle. “It wasn’t intentional to upset you. I just…,” he sighs, not knowing how to finish the sentence.

“We’ll talk about it later. We need to be downstairs,” she orders, not willing to lie to him and tell him that she’s not angry.

“Fine,” he huffs, standing as she makes her way out the room and downstairs into the madness.


	2. Friday night

They had sat apart through dinner, avoiding each other’s glance.

She was engaging in conversation with Frank and Larry about novels whilst he had been living it up with Cyd and Joan, their laughter booming over the table every so often as everyone had gotten progressively merry.

She had avoided eye contact with Karolina, who had sat quietly talking to Dana, though she had felt Karolina’s glance on her every so often, pretending not to notice, not wishing to give any opportunity to engage.

_She wasn’t ready to speak to her, had determined that she would do so when she got back to the villa. Though she was feeling as though she was bordering between tipsy and drunk at this point. She prided herself in having a high alcohol tolerance thanks to years of drinking a few martinis or a few fingers of scotch on a daily basis. However, she had been indulging since 11am, mixing her drinks, moving from champagne, to scotch, and now to cocktails and she could feel the effects. She never liked to get drunk really, especially when she was feeling emotional; it allowed too many of her thoughts to run riot, her feelings sometimes becoming too overwhelming and that just was not her. She relished in being able to remain in control at all times, teetering on the edge of tipsy and sober so that she could quickly engage in work after a short amount of time. There had been too many years of scandals hitting at random hours of the evening for her to be allowed to indulge, but she was trying to be looser, show another side to her on this trip so everyone would warm to her._

She takes the opportunity to watch Roman after dinner when he isn’t looking. She examines as he wanders to the bar with Cyd, fiddling with a cocktail umbrella, twirling it in his fingers, putting it behind his ear as he laughs heartily. She watches as he downs a shot of Tequila with Cyd, clinking the small shot glasses beforehand, licking the salt from their hands, then seeing the laughing grimace on their faces when they bite into the piece of lime.

_She doesn’t want to fight with him. It had just come as such a shock. She had been taught by Baird from the word go that their relationship had to remain private. That any discussion of any troubles in their relationship could be utilised and preyed on by others in the organisation to turn them against each other or as a business advantage. They rarely had troubles apart from the cheating. Their relationship had been too comfortable for them to have a lot of spats. They weren’t the normal nuclear family who fought over who was going to clean the dishes or getting in late from work. They both understood that work came first, that they needed au pairs, cooks, cleaners to take care of the household to avoid fighting, that he was going to take a larger reign with the girls when he had retired. They had been very logically in-sync, but she did recognise now that it really did lack passion._

_But it was hard to move away from that previous dynamic now. It has been her life for so many years. It was too risky for Roman to discuss their relationship with people. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Karolina not to fuck them over, she just didn’t know how comfortable she was with people knowing the ins and outs of her relationship after decades of keeping her last one secret. She didn’t know how comfortable she was with people knowing the true Gerri, out of work Gerri, especially when she had no control over what was being divulged. Relying on Roman to reveal the correct parts and report back to her what was divulged. She didn’t know how much that could go against her in the future._

_It had been easy with Roman._

_He was already so emotional and sensitive that whenever she revealed anything it had seemed that no matter how expressive she was, he would always be more. She doesn’t know why that makes her feel safe. Like as long as he was more revealing than she, then it was safe for her to indulge in a little emotionality. She trusted him not to fuck her over, but knowing that if he ever did, she could easily win the battle, made her feel safer._

_Not to mention that she rarely felt this passionate about anything. She was so used to expressing her feelings in such a practical and matter of fact way but with Roman she felt comfortable being expressive passionately because of how much it had been building up within her, how much she knew he needed it, how much he loved her to be expressive. It was a new feeling for her, and she was willing to entertain it a little for both of them._

_But with anyone else outside of that, it was going to be a struggle. She was in her 60s. The idea of her talking to people like a love-sick schoolgirl made her cringe. Then there was the worry of the slippery slope of Roman talking openly to one person and then slipping up in the future with others._

_There was just so much to consider and analyse before she could make any decisions that he had already taken out of her hands._

“Gerri?” Frank asks, looking at her expectantly.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said do you want another drink?”

She looks down to her half full cocktail.

“No, no. I’m fine,” she smiles forcefully, looking back over to Roman who had moved to Joan, attempting to pull her up to dance with a bunch of people on a dancefloor.

Her stomach sinks when Joan indulges, standing up and twirling under his arm along to the music, stumbling a little as she laughs, dancing energetically with him. Tom stands up and starts whooping, causing Joan and Roman to dance even more energetically, the table erupting with cheers and claps encouragingly.

_She knows she’s jealous. She feels stupid knowing that’s what this is. She doesn’t even know what she's jealous of. Is It of Joan? Of her clear extroversion whilst Gerri was so much more introverted than she had been in her youth? Or of his sudden interest in Joan? How much fun he seems to be having with her that she likely could never indulge in? Or is it because she wishes she was the one up there dancing with him so freely? She doesn’t even know if she would ever permit herself to be that person even if she was openly allowed to, but she knows that she wants to be up there having fun with him. Instead she was sitting here brooding over the whole thing, in the middle of an argument with him._

She can feel the earlier tension she had been released from returning, as she continues watching them, aware that her face must be a picture, thankful that she’s sitting behind everyone’s viewpoint.

She finally catches Karolina’s eye when she looks around, the dropping of Karolina's expression a clear signal that she has been rumbled. She watches as Karolina stands and saunters over to sit next to her.

“Are you okay?” Karolina whispers.

“I need to go to the restroom,” Gerri tells her, standing up briskly before Karolina can offer to accompany her.

She strides to the restroom, locking herself in a cubicle, pressing her forehead against the door as she takes a deep breath.

_Come on, Kellman. Get it together. Your being fucking paranoid. This isn’t you. You know he’s just a big ham. You would be cheering them on if you hadn’t had that argument and weren’t so tipsy. Well maybe drunk now. Go and get yourself some water and get a fucking grip. He loves you. He's not Baird._

She takes another deep breath, blowing out slowly as she opens her eyes.

When she returns back to the table, there is an MC announcing a competition, Roman, Joan, and two other people standing up on the small stage, smiling and laughing with one another.

“We’re just looking for one more contestant,” the MC shouts loudly.

“What’s going on?” She asks Cyd, sitting down next to her.

“Hula dancing competition,” she laughs, looking over to the stage where Joan is trying to put on a hula skirt on.

“A what?”

“Frank!” She hears Roman screaming across the room, as she looks around at Frank who instantly starts protesting. “Get up here, Frank!”

“Go on, Frank,” Cyd encourages, laughing.

“I’m not doing it,” Frank protests again.

“Woo woo! Frank! Come on Frank!” Tom shouts, clapping loudly.

“On you go Frank,” Larry claps him on the back, laughing.

Frank looks up to her, his eyes pleading for support, but she can’t help the amusement that takes over her as she hears Roman continuously shouting Frank's name from the stage.

“Come on, Frank. For the team,” she encourages seriously with a smirk.

“You fucking traitors,” he says standing up, downing his drink.

“Frankeeeeeee,” Ray shouts as the table begins cheering whilst he walks towards the stage, putting on a hula skirt, huffing.

Roman, of course, the show-off he can be, goes up first. He must, in his drunken state, have forgotten that they are fighting because he looks over at her with a smirk, raising his eyebrows, showing off his hula skirt as he twirls his hips around, waiting for her approval which she gives in the quirking of an eyebrow.

“What’s your name?” The MC asks him, holding the microphone up to Roman’s mouth.

“Thomas Archibald Macarena Lavender Wambsgans, but you can call me Tom,” he says seriously as their table erupts with laughter.

“That’s not my fucking name,” Tom protests, looking around the table. “That’s not my name,” he repeats seriously.

“Where you from Tom?”

“Straight outta Compton, born and bred,” Roman answers quickly, completely serious, earning another explosion from their table.

 _He’s honestly such a fucking idiot_ , she thinks, laughing, her mood elevating.

“Do you have a better half here tonight, Tom?”

“Nope. Work is my better half. My boss is here though! I’m her bitch if that counts,” he quirks an eyebrow at Gerri as the table begins laughing again, looking to her. She laughs along, attempting to hide her embarrassment with a challenging smirk at him.

_There was only one way out of this and she wouldn’t be beaten._

“You had better do well. Your performance review depends on it, bitch!” She shouts back so he can hear, earning another laugh from everyone as he smirks, leaning towards the microphone.

“What's in it for me if I pass?” he fires back flirtatiously, everyone now watching the exchange between them.

“Special bonus,” she shouts back over to him with a wink, the alcohol making her lips even looser, her look seductive, as a series of ooohhh’s fill the room.

_She could try and play this fucking game. Show the Gerri Kellman no one ever saw._

“What an incentive,” he reasons to the MC. “Play that funky music, white boy!”

He was actually quite good. He had good rhythm, his hips moving fluidly like she knew they could. However, towards the end of his turn it turns more into a Chippendale routine as he begins rolling his whole body, moving to the floor and gyrating against it as he looks up at her, whilst the room screams its support, she herself offering a cheer.

The music cuts out when he is on the floor, the MC coughing into the microphone as Roman jumps back up to his feet looking very pleased with himself.

“So much for family friendly,” the MC jokes as everyone chuckles with him.

“Well, audience what did we think? Give us your best cheer for Tom,” the MC shouts as the room erupts again, he only speaking when it dies down.

“And what say you, boss? Is he earning that bonus?” The MC directs at Gerri.

She changes her expression to a grimace, wavering her hand from side to side in the air.

“B Minus,” she shouts as Roman wipes his hair back from his forehead with a smirk.

“I can sense a harassment case in the near future so let’s move onto the second candidate.”

She barely pays attention to the next one, the whole table sitting down as they watch the stranger take the next turn, Roman still standing on the stage watching her. Her eyes are locked with his briefly before Cyd takes away her attention.

“Usual Roman. Gets tongues wagging,” Cyd laughs, taking a drink.

“Did you expect anything else?”

“Well, he flirts with all men and women over the age of 40 so no,” Cyd laughs. “Good for you being on the receiving end this time. It was bound to come. I’m just shocked he didn’t pick Hugo to dedicate his dance to,” she laughs.

She smirks, taking a sip of her drink as she considers how no one seems to suspect anything. _She supposes this has always been Roman’s shtick. Being flirty with literally everyone. When he had made the not so joke about masturbating in her bathroom, no one even batted an eyelid. It was what he did. Joked about what everyone else would consider wild, whilst everyone else ignored it or laughed, assuming it was a routine joke. And she was known for batting banter back over the net whenever someone tried to hit her with it so that exchange wasn’t so far-fetched. She really did need to stop getting in her own head._

Joan is up after the two strangers take a turn, revealing that she really had little rhythm, instead making up for it by shimmying her ample chest, directing it towards the MC after her attempt at hilariously flirting with him when he asked her questions, bringing in a lot of laughter for the audience. She actually found herself enjoying watching Joan now that she had loosened up a little.

However, the best of all came from Frank. Her stomach started seizing with how much she laughed at Frank’s attempt. Poor Frank had literally no rhythm at all, but he gave it his best shot, taking a flower and putting it behind his ear, releasing two buttons to reveal the hair on his chest as he gyrated his hips. He then tried to unsuccessfully twerk, bending down and struggling to stand upright again. Roman was howling, falling onto the stage floor, slapping the wood on the ground as he screamed with laughter.

_She doesn’t think she’s laughed so much in her life than seeing Frank awkwardly dance in a hula skirt._

It was a hard choice to figure out who the winners were, however, Roman conceded declaring that Frank should be the winner, giving him a hug and kissing his bald head as Frank was handed a shitty fake medal and a bottle champagne.

****

They opt to go back to the villa after that, everyone congregating as they decide what form of entertainment they are going to indulge in now.

“Who’s up for poker?” Cyd asks. “Frank? Larry? Hugo?”

They all agree as Dana and Joan plonk on the nearby sofa.

“I think I pulled something,” Joan laughs, stretching out her legs as Dana closes her eyes, the alcohol likely hitting her all at once.

“You’re a good sport, Joan!” Karolina assures her as she leans on the back of the sofa smiling.

“Pool?” Tom asks everyone. “Roman?”

“Yeah, I’ll be the drinks bitch first,” he says making his way towards the bar. “Get your orders in now!” He declares to the room.

“Tom Collins!” She hears someone shout.

“Easy there. I’m not a cocktail maker!” He declares. “Spirits, wine, and champagne are my specialities.”

“I’m going to get my swim shorts,” Tom declares as he goes back to the front door. “Scotch is fine for me!”

“I’ll get mine too,” Ray declares. “I’ll get a beer when I’m back.”

Gerri doesn’t say anything, opting to slip upstairs silently to change into comfier shoes, remove all of the chunky items she feels are weighing her down.

She makes her escape unnoticed, plopping on the edge of the bed with a sigh, her head spinning a little as the effects of the alcohol hits her in the silent room, her ears still buzzing.

She hears a knock on the door, shouting entry, pretty sure she didn’t lock it behind her, but she’s surprised to see Karolina enter.

“Oh hey,” she says quietly, looking up to her.

“Hey,” Karolina smiles gently, closing the door behind her. “How you doin’?”

“Oh, I’m fine. Think I drank a little too much,” she laughs awkwardly, taking her heavy earrings from her ears, really just looking for something to do.

“I’ve… uhm… hardly spoken to you since we got here. You okay?” Karolina ventures, standing in the middle of the room with her hands clasped.

“Yeah,” Gerri answers assuredly. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Uhm… well…”

“Well what?” She challenges.

“Well it seems like you’ve been avoiding me to be honest,” Karolina offers, clenching her teeth together awkwardly.

Gerri huffs, putting the earrings onto the bedside table.

_She’s too drunk for this. Too exhausted to consider how to go about damage controlling what Roman created._

“I assume you know I spoke to Roman earlier?” Karolina ventures.

“Yeah, he told me,” Gerri says directly, looking up at her and holding her stare. “I’m not going to lie, Karolina. I’m feeling a little bit uncomfortable about it,” she hears herself mumbling a little.

“Okay. Uhm… I didn’t mean to overstep. Honestly, Roman just looked a little downtrodden. Like he lost his mom at the store. I just put two and two together, knowing Roman. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I just wanted to help,” she tells Gerri, fiddling with her nails as she speaks.

“It’s not about you Karolina. This whole thing is just very percar- precarious,” she clears her throat, trying to get her mind to have a word with her tongue. “I don’t want a s-slip up, there is a lot on the line, and you know full well, I’m a very private person when it comes to my personal life.”

“I would never divulge anything, Gerri. You can trust me,” she assures.

“I do trust you. As I said it’s not you. This is all just very new,” Gerri tries to explain, her tongue wrapping around words now as she tries to over pronounce them.

“I understand,” Karolina says quietly, moving to sit on the edge of the chaise lounge at the end of the bed. “I just want you to know that I have a lot of respect for you, Gerri. I consider you more than a good colleague. You have been like a mentor to me as well. You’ve always been there to give me good advice and ward me off when Logan became progressively unsettling,” Karolina laughs a little.

_Gerri can feel her icy front melting, really taking in what a sweet girl Karolina really was. It was touching._

“And Roman has always been good to me as well. I genuinely just wanted to help,” Karolina pauses briefly. “Roman told me that I’m the only one who knows. I told Roman and I’ll tell you the same. Making your lives easier, makes everyone’s lives easier. I just thought it would be helpful to be able to talk to someone about any issues you have, maybe help you both have an easier life to try and manoeuvre this until you’re both ready to go public.”

“He had said. Told me you offered to work late at our apartments or be an alibi. It was very generous and I’m very grateful for the offer which I will take into consideration,” Gerri says finally with a smile. “If there is anyone, I trusted with this, Karolina, it’s you. I’m just not used to these situations. I’m not questioning your motives.”

“Okay,” Karolina breathes, trying to figure out where to go with this. “He’s really lovestruck, you know?” She smiles, catching Gerri’s eye when she looks up with wide eyes, panicked.

“Roman said you had told him we had become less obvious,” she states quickly.

“Oh, no. No, you have. It’s been a serious difference. The odd flirtation was always normal. That’s just Roman though. Flirts and waits for the other person to bat him away or join in,” she laughs. “I only say that because he told me he’s unbelievably happy because of you.”

“Oh-, oh yeah? What else did he say?” Gerri asks, her eyebrow curiously quirked.

“He said he thinks you’re out of his league,” Karolina begins quietly. “That he’s still shocked it’s all real. That you get him, and no one’s ever got him before. It’s really sweet actually. But I told him the same thing I told you, it makes sense. When you go public, it won’t take long for people to move on from it. He doesn’t seem to realise his own assets,” she shrugs, leaning her hand against the cushion behind her.

Gerri sighs deeply, her head still spinning a little, taking in what Karolina has divulged.

_She hates to think that Roman thinks she’s somehow higher than him in this relationship and that they aren’t equal. She doesn’t want him to feel that way._

“Yeah, it’s a common theme. We’ve always known he was full of bullshit bravado,” Gerri sighs, rubbing her forehead.

“Yeah, we did. We didn’t sit and talk about your personal life, just so you know. That’s about all he divulged. I actually got the feeling he was holding back. I’m not trying to interfere. I’m on both of your sides. You've done a lot for me personally and what you have both done for Waystar has been exactly what I always expected from your leadership. I support you both personally and professionally, no questions asked. So, I'll leave it at that,” Karolina finishes, sensing Gerri is becoming a little uncomfortable with the rawness of the conversation.

“Thank you, Karolina. I genuinely appreciate it. The offer of help and the feedback on the relationship and professionally. Roman seems to think we should be using you as an objective party to make sure we don’t reveal ourselves,” she laughs a little.

“I will happily help with that,” she confirms, shrugging her shoulders.

“Karolina, you don't need dragged into this whole deception. You've already done enough keeping this secret. It’s not fair. We're grown adults and can figure it out ourselves,” Gerri shakes her head, looking down at the bedspread.

“I’m not being dragged in. I’m offering.”

“Okay,” she breathes with a smile. “I’ll keep it in mind, but I should talk to Roman about it anyway.”

“Great. And I don’t want to rock the boat again but my offer of the apartments and alibis stand. And I know you’re not used to it, Gerri, but if you do ever just want to talk to someone, I’m here. I know Roman can fly off the handle with things sometimes when you just want to get it off your chest. But I will sign an NDA first if you want,” Karolina jests as Gerri chuckles with her.

Gerri sighs deeply after a moment. _Unsure whether to open up a little. Unsure whether to break the rule that Baird had set in place. But she thinks back to Roman. How their relationship is so different. How this isn’t a normal situation. How they actually might need some help. And how Roman had been successfully loosening her up. She doesn’t know if she should do it, but once again, the alcohol emboldens her._

“It has been hard. With uhm… the personal things. Not being able to spend time together. And it has been hard going back to reality after the few times we’ve been together, but I know it’s not forever. It’s hard convincing him of that sometimes though. He takes it harder; has a more romanticised view of everything than I do,” she tells her quietly, her eyes pressed to the bed spread, tracing her nail along it’s embroidery; a twang inside her telling her she’s made a mistake, whilst a little relief also leaves her shoulders.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t have expected anything less. But you have a lot of pressure with this new role as well, suddenly being in the limelight. It can’t be easy for you.”

“I’ve not really struggled with the role. I was thinking about it today. I think I’ve been very lucky having Roman to help distract and lighten it, and I’ve had a great team around me whom I trust to be diligent. You, Frank, Cyd, Joan, Dana. You’ve all made this so much easier.”

“Only because you’ve given us the freedom to do our job and been approachable when we had thoughts and ideas. Your leadership has allowed that, Gerri.”

“I hope so. I don’t want it to be… you know… the same management style previously in place,” Gerri raises her eyebrows, hoping she is cryptic enough to back out but clear enough to be understood that she's referring to Logan.

“None of us do,” Karolina says exasperated, with a chuckle. “And Roman mentioned something earlier about the office being bugged. I’ve been suspicious of that for months.”

_That catches her off guard. He hadn’t mentioned that he had told her that. But it’s interesting that Karolina seems to be very anti-Logan and on par with their thought processes. Maybe she is someone they should be bringing on board._

“I don’t believe in a fear culture, Karolina. Sure, people will do the work for you, but it doesn’t create a lot of trust nor loyalty. I prefer open and yet firm.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you,” Karolina reasons, smiling.

“Well, thank you. I appreciate that,” she smiles. “You're a real asset, Karolina. Most of you are. I'm very lucky. We should all try and go out more outside of Waystar. Try and engage more personally with each other, other than a corporate retreat. I think it would be good.”

“I agree.”

There is a silence, Gerri’s mind wandering to what Roman is likely doing now. _Maybe he’s encouraged Joan into the pool by now._

“So, Joan. What’s her story? I remember she was married, had a few kids. I know that’s the reason she’s taken this long to get to this point in her career but what’s her story?” Gerri trails off a little slurred, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.

Karolina smirks knowingly, then looks innocently down to the cushion beside her.

“Uhm, she’s married. Ritchie’s his name. He was a family law lawyer, I think. Retired now. They had four kids. Three boys and a girl. Though she lost one of her sons in the South Tower on September 11th, I’m sure. I remember someone telling me about her having to take some time off. The rest of them are all grown up and married now, I’m sure.”

Gerri nods, her stupid fucking jealousy seeming so trivial now.

“Why do you ask?” Karolina presses with a smirk.

“Oh nothing,” she purses her lips, shakes her head. “Just making conversation.”

“God, you and Roman can be so fucking transparent. I clocked you giving them stink eye when they were dancing. Trust me, Joan isn’t a threat. She’s just a flirty showboat. She’s mad about her husband, never stops talking about him. You should speak to her. You’ll see,” Karolina smiles.

Gerri sighs with relief, smiling at Karolina, “I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

“Right okay,” Karolina laughs, standing up, as Gerri checks her watch.

“Hey, there _is_ something you could help me with. Have you got everything planned for tomorrow?”

“Yeah. It’s all ready to go,” Karolina confirms with a furrowed eyebrow.

“Great. Roman and I were talking about going scuba diving tomorrow if you want to come? But I have something planned and want to try and sneak him away for a few hours tomorrow, say between 4.30pm and 7pm? Do you think you could try cover for us? I’m going to make up something about how we have to leave early to pay for the whole retreat or something, then like broken down car or something pathetic but convincing people of that if they ask questions would be where you would come in?” She’s looking at her nervously, doesn’t know why. She can’t imagine Karolina telling her to fuck off.

“Sure. And yeah, I’ll come scuba diving. Will put out the word tonight. You guys can just meet us at the restaurant, that'll give us time to set up.”

“Great. I was thinking we could go down to the beach in the morning. Catch a bit of sun as well. Maybe beach volleyball or something?”

“Sounds great. Will suggest I when we get back downstairs.”

_She needs to try and sort everything out with Roman now. Another task she is dreading._

“Great. Uhm… could you try and discreetly send Roman up just now?”

“Sure.”

“I owe you one,” Gerri says standing up, looking in the mirror.

****

She hears the door opening five minutes later, when he saunters in, locking the door behind him, a scotch in hand.

“You summoned me? Want to berate me more?” He bites, taking a sip from his tumbler.

“I just wanted to clear the air from earlier. I don’t want to fight,” she tells him sadly, fiddling with the hem of her dress and she sits on the bed facing him, whilst he stands in the middle of the room.

“Well, I don’t know what else to say. I wasn’t trying to annoy you. I thought you trusted Karolina and I didn’t even really talk about us so…” He rabbles until she cuts him off.

“You were right,” she explodes out, her eyes tight shut, before she takes a deep breath and opens them to take in the view of Roman standing with his eyes narrowed and his mouth hanging open.

“Come again?”

“You were right,” she repeats firmly, looking him dead in the eye this time. “I was wrong. I over reacted.”

He shakes his head, looking around the room.

“I feel like I’m in the fucking Twilight Zone.”

She rolls her eyes, looking back at him.

“I spoke to Karolina and ended up divulging some shit myself. You’re right. There is nothing wrong with having a person to tell _a little_ ,” she warns, “to so that we can get some help, off-load a little.”

“So, you want to take her help now?” He asks trying to catch up with what the fuck is going on.

“Well… I told her I would talk to you about it. What do you think?”

“I mean… fuck Gerri, I don’t know what to think. I don’t want to upset you again,” he tells her honestly as he moves to sit on the opposite edge of the bed, swinging his legs over so he’s lying back against her pillow, his scotch balancing on his stomach.

“Don’t worry about upsetting me. If you had the choice to take her help, would you take it? Is it a good move?”

“I mean… I trust Karolina. I want to see you more outside of Waystar, even if it’s in a shitty apartment a few times a week. If we’re careful then I don’t see why not. I don’t think anyone would suspect anything if both you and Karolina were in my apartment doing work in the evenings. Or vice versa. It’s a good solution for now. I wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

She nods as he speaks, staring at his tumbler on his stomach as it rises and falls with his breathing.

“What do you think?” He asks looking around to her face, worried of her rejection.

“I don’t know. I think it could work. And I trust Karolina too. It was never about that. I just…,” she huffs. “You need to understand that I’m stuck in a dynamic of my relationship with Baird that might take some time to get out of,” she begins, staring down at him as he looks up to her confused.

“He set the rules from the word go that we were never to divulge any personal information to anyone, especially at Waystar, in case they tried to use it as an advantage against us. I went straight into that mindset with us. But you and I are nothing like Baird and I. It’s a different context, a different person, a different dynamic. But all I ask is that you be a little patient with me whilst I try and get used to it being different. I went into panic mode earlier at the thought, but it was wrong. I would still like it if you talked to me about things first if you don’t mind. I thought that us being open and honest was working so that we could try and solve any issues, but I trust you to talk to Karolina if you need to. However, use your judgement wisely. Don’t talk to anyone else about us. Don’t do something that we’ll regret. And abso-fucking-lutely do not talk about our sex life. That I will never be okay with,” she warns as she turns her body around to him, taking his drink from his stomach and taking a sip before passing it back.

“Gerri,” he starts slurring a little, downing the rest of the drink and placing it on the bedside table before turning back around to her. “I don’t need to talk to Karolina if it makes you uncomfortable,” he says, placing a hand on her thigh, stroking lightly.

“I know, but if you want to. It’s an option. Just like I will too if I want to,” she shrugs, placing her hand on top of his.

“So, what did you talk to her about?”

“Just the same things I said to you. Though I eventually told her I was struggling with it a little as well. The not seeing each other,” she tells him gently, lying down to face him herself.

“It won’t be forever,” he tries to comfort her, though it comes out in a little slur as he strokes up her arm.

She smiles, aware that that’s usually what she said she was trying to convince him of.

“I’m sorry I flew off the handle,” she whispers quietly, nestling closer to him. “I was panicked.”

“Hey, with all the shit you need to put up with me, you’re allowed to fly off the handle every so often,” he laughs as he wraps his arm around her waist tighter, their noses almost touching.

“She said you said that self-degrading shit as well. How I’m out of your league. That’s bullshit, Roman. You know that,” she tells him matter-of-factly, running her hand across his cheek slowly.

“No, I don’t know that,” he tells her simply. “Look at you, Gerri. You’re a fucking fox. You’re so fucking smart, cultured, sophisticated, mature, caring. And I’m… fucking me. I know I’ve lucked out.”

“We’ve been through this, honey,” she stumbles on her words a little. _When the fuck was this alcohol going to wear off._ “We've both lucked out.”

He rolls his eyes, his hand fidgeting with the seam of her dress at its zip as he stares at her shoulder.

_She knows she’s going to have to give him more. Can see he’s completely not believing her. Fuck she hates having to admit shit like this._

She rolls over onto her back, so she doesn’t have to look at him, his hand never leaving her body, resting now on her stomach, as she stares at the ceiling.

“Do you know,” she sighs. “I can’t believe I’m going to admit this. I got jealous of Joan today,” she laughs a little, shakes her head in embarrassment. _Foolish old woman._

“Joan?” He asks surprised.

“Yeah. You were talking about how _cool_ she was because she wanted to try windsurfing even though she’s older than me and then she was such a character at the hula dancing, making everyone laugh and flirting with the MC, and then you were dancing around with her and having so much fun and laughing. And all I could think of was Jesus, Gerri, you’re such a fucking bore. You can’t live up to someone with Joan’s personality. Someone who can match Roman's energy and keep him excited and be a loud extrovert.”

“Gerri,” he begins though she silences him by stretching her hand up to his lips as she looks around to him.

“I’m not finished. You’re not the only one who can have doubts. If anything, people could say I’m punching above my weight. Famous rich bachelor, Roman Roy, stands to inherit a fortune, could get any model he wants, life and soul of the party, the person everyone wants to be around for a good time. Old woman who likely has cobwebs down there with young vibrant energetic man at the peak of his life, not giving him the satisfaction that he needs,” she smiles, stroking his lips with the pad of her thumb as he pecks them. “I thought that way tonight, though I don’t usually. Probably because we had had a fight. Because I’m a little tipsy, and because I’m way out of comfort zone here trying to be the fun boss who gets to know everyone and make them comfortable when it's not my forte. You are the one suited to that role, Rome. Not me.”

“Gerri, you are fun. You just don’t let anyone but me see it. I get why, but just be yourself. Everyone already loves and respects you but giving them that little bit of playfulness I know is in there will make them fall even harder. Or you know what? Fucking don’t. You’re fine as you are and fuck them if they don’t think so,” he bites, leaning up on his elbow so he’s hovering above her. “And you have nothing to worry about with Joan. Joan is good fun but she’s not you,” he leans forward to kiss her lips. “I’m crazy about you. I don’t need someone who’s loud and brash. You’re exactly what I want and need. Someone who’ll play with me and be nice to me but tell me to get my shit together as well. I love that about you. You’re the perfect blend of both fun and practical.”

“Fuck, you’ve got it bad,” she laughs, pecking his lips back.

“Yeah, I do. I don’t want to be with anyone but you. Remember what I said months ago when you were talking about the age thing. Can you imagine what it would be like if I was dating someone like me, or well, like Joan for that matter? It would be a hyperactive nightmare. Plus, Joan has done nothing but tell me stories of her husband all night and what a space cadet he is,” he laughs.

“I know. I was having a weak moment. I know I’m not completely boring. And I know we’re solid,” she smiles, moving in closer to him, kissing his neck, inhaling him in as she squeezes tighter.

“If anyone heard the filthy things that come out of our mouth, especially when I was in management training,” he groans, biting at her shoulder, “they would know you’re anything but fucking boring.”

She laughs a little, hugging him tighter against her, his full weight upon her as she burrows into his neck with a sigh.

“I don’t want to be with anyone but you either,” she mumbles into his neck. “I’m sorry this all has to be so complicated.”

“We can still just run away. There are jungles here. We can just pack a bag, drive to the edge of the jungle and run into it holding hands. Never look back. Really live our Rockstar and the Molewoman lifestyle. Tarzan swinging through trees and you back home cookin’ us soup,” he smiles into her shoulder, as she pushed him back, kissing him soundly.

“Maybe one day,” she smiles when she pulls back. “But we still have unfinished business.”

“Fuck the business.”

“You know you want to succeed as much as I do,” she smirks, stroking his hair back from his face.

“Yeah,” he whines, moving his head to kiss her wrist, moving across to her neck as he begins to devour it, her moan leaving her body without warning.

“Roman. We need to get downstairs. We can pick this up later,” she warns as she tries to push him off.

“Fuck them all. They’re too drunk to even notice,” he says attempting to resume his ministrations

“No,” she catches him. “Come on. I promise, we’ll pick it back up when we come up here. I’ve already been up here the whole time. People will wonder where I am,” she tells him, already pulling out from under him, moving off the bed.

“Fucking secret relationship,” he moans jumping off the bed.

“Go through your own room. Say you wanted to put your phone on charge,” she directs, moving her bangles off her wrist, as he follows her direction.

***

Luckily everyone had wanted to retire early, too exhausted from their flights that morning, still stuck in New York time to warrant a continuation of the party; most of them already in too deep of a debt to Cyd anyway.

It works beautifully with her plan, as she waits for him in her bedroom, a little more drunk than she had wanted, having indulged in the martini Roman had specially made her when she had gone downstairs.

She has put on a short strappy silk nightdress that she had bought especially for this moment, though as she sits on the edge of her bed, facing the bathroom, waiting for him to arrive, she can feel her eyes drooping closed, sleep ready to take over her as the alcohol washes over her whole body.

She doesn’t realise he’s in the room with her until he speaks.

“Tired?” He laughs, standing in front of her.

Her body jerks in shock, her eyes flying open.

_Had she just fallen asleep?_

She looks up to him standing over her, his pyjama bottoms on, bare chest, hair ruffled, with a lopsided grin.

“You’re cute,” she giggles in a slur, as she reaches out for him, whilst he steps over her legs, his warm hands moving under her hair behind her neck. She reaches up to his shoulder pulling him down so he can kiss her. Her mouth instantly becoming passionate against his as she moans into his mouth, until he pulls back.

She pouts, a little disappointed that he’s not as eager as she.

“Come on. Let’s get you into bed,” he laughs a little, stroking her cheek.

She looks down at her watch, squinting with one eye to make it out, though her glasses are on.

_Perfect._

“Thought you’d never ask,” she smiles, taking his hand and standing up in front of him. “You get in first,” she offers, indelicately gesturing to the bed.

“I think you should be the one who gets in first,” he laughs, his arm firm around her waist, holding her up as she leans against him uneasily.

She laughs, turning around to face him, pecking his lips.

“If you insist,” she says, climbing up onto the bed, crawling over to her side, turning around and kneeling as she waits for him to climb in.

He offers a suspicious look, getting in, sitting back against the headboard, and pulling the covers up a little.

“Wait,” she smiles, crawling back over to him and straddling his hips before pulling the covers up around her hips. “That’s better,” she slurs as she takes her glasses off, throwing them towards his bedside table before wrapping her arms around his shoulders, kissing him soundly, pulling him in closer.

“I think you should get some sleep,” he mumbles against her lips.

“No,” she pouts. “I have a plan,” she declares, with furrowed eyebrows.

**Fuck she was cute when she was this drunk.**

“A plan you say?” He challenges surprised.

“Uhu,” she whispers, kissing down his cheek, to his jaw, his neck, whilst she hears his sharp intake of breath at her ear, his hands wandering from her thighs, to her behind, up to her hips.

“Gerri,” he whispers. “You really need to get some sleep.”

She looks to her watch over his shoulder.

_It’s time._

She pulls back, looking him in the eye, kissing his lips softly.

“Happy birthday, baby,” she whispers when she pulls back, their noses brushing, her grin growing wider.

He doesn’t speak, floored that she had planned this moment. His grin simply grows wider and wider.

“You planned this?” He chokes out, his hands firmly on her hips as she rubs her nose against his.

“Yeah,” she breathes. “Wanted to be the first to wish my Rome a very,” she pecks his lips, “very,” she pecks again, “happy,” peck, “birthday,” she finishes with a final kiss.

**This is the moment he knows for absolute certain he needs to spend the rest of his sorry life with Gerri Kellman. It’s not like no one has ever wished him happy birthday at midnight before. He’s had it a few times when in a bar, or a nightclub; one of his friends clapping him on the back, pushing a stripper onto his lap. But for the last few years, he’s spent midnight on his birthday alone. The first few years he had wallowed over how pathetic his life was, with no messages coming through until the next morning. The last few years he has just made sure to take a sleeping pill before midnight so he would sleep right through, trying to get the majority of the day over by sleeping in. He fucking hates his birthday. Often taken to a forced lunch or dinner by Shiv or Ken, forced into a family meal at his dad’s, where all they talk about is Waystar anyway.**

**But this right now is a moment that he knows he won’t forget for the rest of his life. Just Gerri sitting on his lap, pecking his lips, trying to create a special moment for him. He thinks this is what epitomises his Gerri. The Gerri that no one knows. The Gerri who's really thoughtful and caring enough to do something so simple and yet meaningful.**

He still struggles to speak so puts all his emotion into kissing her, his tongue running across hers, his arms wrapped around her back, his hands fisting into her nightdress as he crushes her into him.

She pulls back for air, her face and chest flushed as he continues to devour her jaw, moving to her neck, pulling her to him tighter, pausing at her neck to breathe her in as he squeezes her close, involuntary tears pressing up against her perfect skin.

“Roman, baby?” She ventures, her brow furrowed feeling his tears against her. “What’s wrong?”

He mumbles against her neck until she pulls him back, placing her hands on either side of his jaw to force him to look at her.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

“I’ve never been so thankful for you,” he tells her, hands stroking her hips. “I love you so much, Gerri.”

_She thinks she understands. These are half tears of joy, half of his previous heartache. She can tell by his contorted expression that he likely doesn’t even know what to feel._

“I love you too, Rome,” she smiles, pecking his lips. “No tears, okay?” She encourages, wiping his tears away. “Now what do you want for your birthday?” She slurs a little. “Any position you like,” she laughs, quirking her eyebrows suggestively, though her eyes are heavy with sleep.

“I just want you, Gerri. This right here,” he says honestly, giving a small smile.

“So, me on top?” She smiles, grinding her hips against him.

“No,” he breathes, pecking her lips when her eyebrows furrow. “Just you, here, with me,” he confirms, pulling her into his embrace again, kissing her shoulder and he squeezes her close.

“You don’t-” She yawns, covering her mouth quickly. “Sorry. You don’t want to have sex?” She asks, pulling him back a little to search his eyes.

“Maybe in the morning. I just want to go to sleep wrapped around you. Is that like fucking weird? Like obviously anyone else would jump at the opportunity but we’re both exhausted and too drunk, and I want it to be perfect. This is more than better than anything else I could have asked for,” he pulls a panicked face, looking at her for any suggestion that he is a fucked up little weirdo.

“No, honey. It’s not weird,” she smiles, kissing him quickly before pulling back and moving off his lap, another yawn escaping her. “I am actually really tired. I’ll set an alarm for early in the morning, okay? So, we can get up early and I’ll make it up to you then. Okay birthday boy?” She tells him, leaning over to set an alarm on her phone, it taking a good bit longer than usual as she tries to make out the screen without any glasses, the light sparkling her a little. “Get the lamp would you, Rome?”

He does so without question, turning off his bedside lamp and back around to her, the maximum brightness on her phone filling the whole room like a lighthouse before she locks it. She settles back into bed, shuffling into the middle until she gets near him before landing into the pillow, facing him as their noses brush, their arms wrapped around one another.

She kisses him slowly, his tongue exploring her mouth again as they pour all their love into the kiss with small caresses and sighs.

He’s the one to pull back, running his hand through her hair.

“It’s going to be a brilliant birthday,” she promises through another yawn.

“It already has surpassed every other,” he whispers, as she chuckles.

“So, what position?” She laughs, repeating her previous offer, pecking his lips as he joins in.

“Turn over. I’ll be big spoon,” he kisses her quickly again as she groans turning over to press her back to his chest whilst he wraps around her.

“Goodnight my little Rome,” she whispers cutely, pulling him around her.

“Night my perfect Gerri,” he mumbles into a kiss on her shoulder.


	3. Saturday morning/afternoon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, this chapter is the longest I've ever done. My apologies!

He wakes up feeling disoriented, exhausted, when he hears her alarm. Hears her groaning behind him as the alarm is suddenly turned off.

He turns around sleepily to see her, finds her lying on her back, her arm thrown over her eyes, the room already a little lighter as it peeks through the blinds.

“Why the fuck did I drink so much?” She groans.

He can’t help the scoff that escapes him, throwing his arm over her stomach, closing his eyes again.

“Go back to sleep,” he directs, sighing deeply.

“No, I didn’t follow through on my plans last night,” she groans. “I promised I would this morning,” she tells him, her voice thick with sleep, still not moving a muscle.

“It’s okay,” he laughs, rubbing his thumb across the indent where her belly button sits under the sheet of silk of her nightdress. “What time is it?”

“5.30,” she offers, already sounding like she’s half asleep.

“Go back to fucking sleep,” he moans exasperated. “It’s my birthday and I want to sleep in. My alarm will go off at seven, which is perfectly fucking reasonable,” he sighs as she hums, both of them already falling back asleep easily.

She wakes before any alarm goes off, opening her eyes as the light begins pouring in through the blinds now. She looks over to him, meeting his soft features as he sleeps, so innocent looking, hardly a man of 39.

She smiles, turning onto her side as he shifts a little at the disruption, a small sigh escaping him as he adjusts; moving his arm around to the small of her back in his sleep.

She begins running her fingers up his arm, lightly caressing his shoulder, until she finds her finger wandering to his face.

Tracing along the harshness of his stubble, counteracted by the softness of his lips. She runs her finger up his nose as she feels his breathing stop being so rhythmic, his hand on her back beginning to caress her gently.

She can’t help but smile, continuing her exploration of his features as she runs her finger across his brow, noting how his eyes are still gently closed, whilst she continues her adventure to his temple, tracing down his square jaw, down to his Adams apple.

“That’s fucking ticklish,” he grumbles, tightening his hold on her as his hand runs across her behind.

“My sincerest apologies,” she quirks seriously, as she brushes his lips gently with hers, closing her eyes, her hand moving to the back of his head to run her hands through his hair.

He kisses back gently, his eyes still closed, simply paying attention to all the senses around him.

The feeling of her soft slightly wet lips against. He can imagine she licked them briefly in her exploration, the usual little lick she does when she’s concentrating. The feel of her fingers through the back of his hair, the odd scrape of her nail on his scalp in her travels. The fabric under his hand as he strokes her ample behind in circles, not quite ready to explore what’s underneath yet; this being enough for the moment. The smell of her perfume surrounding him alongside a little bit of alcohol on her breath. He can feel hot air flowing over his face from her nose as she breathes evenly against him. Her lips still gentle against his mouth as she pecks randomly. Her body is pressed up to his, their legs woven together as she moves her foot up and down the back of his calf. He can’t hear anything but the whirring of the air con and her breathing next to him with the wetness of her lips releasing from his when she pulls back from her kisses.

He opens his eyes finally, taking in the sight of her; the small grin that arrives when she sees he’s looking. Almost embarrassed at being watched. Her eyes crinkling with her smile, her teeth slightly exposed, her bright blue eyes sparkling, her nose wrinkling a little, whilst her messy, slightly curling hair envelops her face.

He runs his hand up the expanse of her back, feeling the skin between her shoulder blades, before he moves his mouth forward to claim her lips. She lets out a small laugh, it taking her off guard as she responds. However, her laugher quickly turns into moans as he quickly turns the kiss passionate, running his tongue across hers, leaning over her and pushing her back into the pillows as she grasps the back of his neck.

He can feel himself growing harder as he presses himself up against her, exploring her mouth languidly as his hand finds the hem of her nightdress, pushing his hand up under it to feel the skin at her hip, stroking against the subtle indentation of where her underwear would normally sit. He moves his thigh between her legs, pushing his knee up so she can push her centre against him, allowing her to slowly grind herself into him, his hand on her hip encouraging her on. She finally releases her lips from his, the pressure beginning to run through her body beginning to make her lose sense, whilst his lips simply move to her pulse point, sucking and licking there.

“This is supposed to be about you,” she whispers, as his hand moves further up her side, her nightdress riding up with it as he reaches her breast. “I’m supposed to be doing this to you,” she breathes as her eyes flutter closed, pressing into his kisses, whilst his thumb rubs over her nipple.

“This is what I want for my birthday,” he pulls back, pecking her lips before jumping up onto his knees, pushing her nightdress up fully, encouraging her to help him pull it off over her head. He looks down at her body appreciatively with a devouring admiration.

He kisses her hard, pushing her back down into the pillows, pulling away when she is settled, spreading her legs, and kneeling between them as his kisses move to her chest. She can’t help but watch his every move as he explores her, her body baking from her fingers to her toes.

“Rome,” she sighs, with her hand still on the back of his head. “Let me do something for you,” she pleads.

“We have time. This is what I want to do,” he looks up to her through his lashes with a smile, moving a peck to the underside of her breast as he moves down quicker to crouch between her legs.

“Really Roman, this seems the wrong way arouuunnnddddd,” she falters when he presses his mouth on her, swirling his tongue around her clit as he lies on the bed on his stomach; his arms wrapped under her thighs, settling on her pelvis to keep her hips from bucking up.

He looks up, watching as her eyes close, her arm swinging over her mouth to mute her moan.

He smiles as he continues consuming her, licking down to her opening to consider how close she is, feeling the moisture there. He moves back up to concentrate on her bud as she leans up on her elbows, gasping, reaching for his head to push him harder into her. Her balance failing, causing her to lie back onto the bed, simply looking up at the ceiling as she closes her eyes and continues to try and push her pelvis up into him.

He senses her frustration, her inability to get the control and friction she needs. He pulls his hands back, moving away from her as she looks at him shocked and irritated.

“Here,” he says, lying back on the bed next to her, his head next to her chest, as she sits up, bringing her knees up to her chest. “Get on top,” he beckons.

She looks at him surprised that he’s ready to go so quickly to sex when she’s barely touched him.

“On my face,” he laughs, confirming his meaning.

“Oh, Rome. I don’t know,” she frowns, looking down at him.

“Come on,” he encourages. “I’ve always wanted to do this with you. You’ll enjoy it. Trust me. If you hate it, we’ll stop,” he assures, patting his chest as she gets up on her knees, shuffling towards him.

“We don’t have to,” he backtracks, noting her reticent expression.

“No, no. I just don’t know how to… uhm… manoeuvre it,” she reveals, biting her lip after; no idea where the fuck to put her knees without hurting him.

“Come here,” he offers as she raises a knee, trying to stretch it across him, resting it on his chest. “Just put your knee next to my head,” he explains, directing her knee next to his ear, ensuring her leg is comfortably settled on his shoulder.

She winces, her hand supporting her on the bed above his head, moving her weight to pull her other knee up as he holds her hips to help balance her until she’s in position.

“Are you okay?” He asks looking up at her, as she sits back on his chest, trying not to put so much weight on him. “You’re in fucking pain. Let’s just leave it,” he gestures, patting her leg for her to get off.

“Roman, finish the job like a good boy,” she orders, as she moves her pelvis carefully down lower to meet his mouth, his arms wrapping around her thighs, whilst she licks her lips, watching as he moves his mouth onto her.

She’s never been in this position, but the feeling of control is so fucking provocative. Being able to have the power to grind her pelvis against his mouth as he eats her out is so arousing.

She grabs hold of the headboard in front of her, her hair hanging around her head as she looks down at him, towering above him; his eyes closed as he completely enjoys the ecstasy of fucking her with his mouth, tasting her as she completely surrounds him. The gasps keep on tumbling from her mouth, her head lolling back when she grinds further into him, finding a rhythm, her other hand lacing through his hair to push him up harder into her.

She feels she needs to give something back. So far, she has done nothing for him. Unaware if he is even getting anything out of this. She looks behind her, breathless, reaching down to find his dick. Pushing her hand under his pyjama bottoms to feel his rock-hard length, feeling the stuttering of his lips against her centre, a loud grown coming as she palms him.

“Shhh,” she reminds him with a smirk, running her hand up and down his length, closing her eyes to try and concentrate on maintaining a steady pace as she feels herself about to tumble over the edge.

Eventually it becomes too much, her hand leaving his erection, both hands returning to the headboard as her hips move wildly against his mouth, finally falling over the edge with a shattering orgasm she has to try and control with squeezed eyes, holding in a scream she wants to release.

She goes limp as he continues to slowly lap her up, his grip still tight on her thighs until she tries to move off; the pressure on her knees too much now the pleasure was over. She groans moving off him, falling against the pillows next to him, leaning up against the headboard as he crawls up with a smug expression.

“That was brilliant,” he offers, kissing her lips as she returns it, the rest of her body still.

“Give me a minute to a recover and we’ll do you,” she promises, caressing his cheek, pecking his lips as she tries to catch her breath back, her heart still racing.

“If you’re too tired, too hungover, it’s okay,” he tells her, lying next to her, kissing her shoulder. “I can take care of it,” he shrugs.

“No. Absolutely not. Just a minute,” she assures as she turns towards him, capturing his lips quickly before tipping her head back against the headboard again exhausted.

_A thought comes to her mind. One she’s never thought before._

“Do you masturbate anymore? When I’m not around or on the phone,” she asks him, a mischievous smile marking her face.

“Ehm… am I not supposed to?” He asks worried, not really fishing for another fight today.

“Of course, you can,” she laughs. “We rarely get to see each other. You’re only human. I do too.”

**The thought of Gerri masturbating when he’s not around makes him even harder.**

“Yeah, I do. Mostly on the phone to you though,” he divulges.

“And when you’re not on the phone with me, what do you think of?”

He scoffs as though it were obvious, “you.”

She offers a small sweet smile.

“How about… you show me what you do? Tell me what you think of? Until I get my breath back,” she ventures nervously, feeling a little daring.

_She’s become the master of getting him off on the phone. The days of berating long gone, evolved to normo phone sex it seems. But she’s never seen him actually do it._

He smiles, pushing his pyjama bottoms off immediately, kicking them off at his feet, apparently no qualms at all about her suggestion as she lies back watching him.

He moves in between her legs, lies back against her chest earning a humph from her when he batters against her chest, closing his eyes as she moves her arms around him onto his chest, stroking lightly.

He reaches for his length, begins slowly stroking as she watches over his shoulder, pressing small kisses to his cheekbone.

“Tell me what you think of,” she whispers, her light fingers tickling his chest, setting his skin on fire.

“You, Gerri. Always you,” he breathes, his fist pumping rhythmically. “Your voice,” he reveals first, which surprises her.

_She thought he would have gone directly to fucking her but wasn’t Roman always full of surprises?_

“What about my voice?” She growls, biting the back of his ear.

“It’s so fucking hot and sensual. Can go so deep and authoritative, but sometimes it just goes so fucking soft. Just for me,” he whispers. “Then the little high-pitched moans you make when I’m getting you off. Or the way you whisper my name,” he divulges, biting his lips as his hand continues moving.

“What else, Rome?” She breathes into his ear, making him shiver.

“I think of making love to you. Or fucking you. Like we did on the desk on the yacht,” he whispers.

“One for the spank bank,” she laughs, kissing under his ear, her caresses moving to his biceps.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “Now I have the blowjob in the park as well. One of my new favourites.”

“You know which is my biggest go to,” she whispers.

“Tell me,” he groans, throwing his head back against her shoulder.

“When we went back to your apartment and you discovered my stockings. How mesmerised you were. Then how I rode you into oblivion,” she whispers into his ear, kissing its edge.

“That was fucking epic,” he continues. “You were so fucking erotic. Fucking yourself on me.”

She’s ready to take over now, reaching down, caressing his arm on the way as she takes over his hand, encouraging him to turn is head so she can seek out his lips.

Their tongues dance as she begins stroking him, capturing his moans in her mouth as he pushes his hips up into her.

“What does the birthday boy want?” She breathes against his lips, kissing them again.

“I just want to be with you. Inside you,” he whispers back, before he’s turning around to face her, pulling her down lower by her legs so he can take her properly.

She smiles as he touches her again, feeling her pooling around his fingers once more, he enters her quickly, securing her moan in his mouth.

They move together slowly in unison, his hips fluid against her as she touches every part of his skin that she can reach.

However, it’s not long until their movements become more frantic, bang in the middle of him slamming into her, when his phone alarm goes off, both of them halting to look over at his phone on the bedside table.

He groans as she begins giggling, watching him reach over quickly to turn it off so that the whole villa doesn’t show up complaining.

He’s back on top of her within seconds, sharing giggles and kisses again as he re-enters her, earning him a moan, wiping the smile off her face as her eyes flutter closed and her mouth hangs open.

Their whispers of love and encouragement become more frequent, trying to be as quiet as possible as he sends her over the edge for a second time, following quickly behind her, biting into her shoulder.

“Best birthday ever,” he moans into her breast, as she laughs, wiping the sweat off her brow.

****

The scuba diving squad had all agreed to meet downstairs at 8am ready to leave for their various activities, Karolina arranging the scuba diving for herself, Roman, Gerri, Tom, and Hugo first thing since apparently that’s the best time of day. They were to meet the others at the beach in the afternoon with Cyd, Larry, and Dana opting for a sleep in and going down a little earlier than everyone else. Frank, Joan, and Ray had opted for the spa. Gerri absolutely petrified of Ray actually asking for a happy ending, begging Frank to keep him in check.

Roman and Gerri were the only two who had gone scuba diving before, only needing a brief fresher lesson in the tank, being left alone to practice themselves whilst the instructors had focused on teaching Karolina, Tom, and Hugo the basics. They were in the boat on the way out quickly, the company citing the Lanai cathedrals as being a once in a lifetime experience if you had a limited time here, also a dive that was acceptable for amateurs.

She forgot how much she loved the sea air until she was right here in it, on the boat on the way out to the identified spot. She sat on the edge in silence for a good ten minutes, simply closing her eyes, allowing the breeze to hit her, smelling the sea salt. She felt truly relaxed. Then she would open her eyes when they would spot something. Mainly dolphins as they sped by them, catching Roman’s excitement as he almost hung over the barrier trying to wave at them. But it was then that she would take in the clear blue waters, the silhouette of the volcanic rock in the distance, appreciating how beautiful this place really was.

She couldn’t help but catch Roman’s glare when she had taken off her kaftan, revealing her bathing costume so she could change into her wet suit when they had approached their destination. The knowing smirk she gave him, as she ran her hands up her legs before pulling it on, simply to tease him. However, she had paid the penance when he had clearly taken a photo of her on his phone before he started laughing at her when she had put on the swimming mask, thankfully opting for her contacts today in preparation.

They had been paired up together as the more experienced ones, whilst Tom, Hugo, and Karolina had been put together so the instructors could keep a closer eye on them. They had been the first to back roll off the boat, waiting for everyone else to enter the water before they received a thumbs up from the instructor, leading the way in their exploration, splitting away from the rest.

It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The tropical fish all around surrounded by sparkling blue water until the light had evaporated as they swam into the underwater caverns, only rays of light spilling through them from the surface.

She understood why they said this was like a cathedral. The ancient volcanic rock had made it look like the ruins of Medieval castles and cathedrals that she had only seen the likes of in Scotland. The instructor had previously pointed out how different parts would resemble a cathedral, such as fallen bits of rock being the alter, the ceiling, and windows from the bubbles.

He had beckoned her over with a hand gesture as he ran his hand through the black coral, pulling her in front of him so she could touch it also. He looked behind, ensuring no one was there before taking her hand and squeezing it. Sparking her look around to him, the smile showing in her eyes through her mask. A signal to her that he was glad she was here experiencing this with him.

They stick close to one another, exploring the dark parts of the cathedral as the others trail slowly behind, having never seen any of the tropical fish before.

He was so glad that she was here with him. Glad that he was spending his birthday this way. It really was special being in this. He doesn’t remember seeing something so mesmerising. Soon though, his childishness seeps through as he starts performing tricks. Swirling in a circle, trying to run up a wall and backflip as she watches him, shaking her head, whilst he looks back to her for approval. He’s interrupted by the arrival of an octopus, his eyebrows hitting the top of his mask as he tries to avoid it battering directly into him; both of them watching as it springs away. They had also seen a few rays and a turtle.

When they had explored everything they could, they had gotten a picture taken underwater of the whole group before both of them gone back up to the surface with one of the instructors, discarding their fins and starting to peel their wet suits off as the instructor had gone back under to help with the others, leaving them on the boat alone.

“It was cool as fuck, wasn’t it?” He asks her, mask detached, wet suit down to his hips.

“It was gorgeous. I’ve never seen anything like it,” she agrees, having got one arm out of the wet suit.

“And did you see the size of that turtle!” He shouts excitedly as he sits down next to her.

“It was pretty big. And the octopus. It was a bit weird the way it moved, wasn’t it?” She continues warring with the other arm of her wet suit

“Yeah,” he breathes smiling, looking around to her as she finally gets her other arm out. “Thanks for coming. I’m so glad you were here,” he looks down at his knees, then up to her under his eyelashes.

“I want to be here. I wasn’t forced to come because it was your birthday. It was great and I’m happy we got to do it together,” she moves her hand to his knee, squeezing it, until he looks up to her.

“Can I?” He asks, moving in closer, looking around, gesturing to kiss her. She looks around also, sure that the others aren’t up from the surface before she nods, and their lips meet in a short loving kiss.

She pulls back a little embarrassed, as he moves her hair behind her ear.

“Come on. Let’s get these off,” she laughs as she stands, trying to push the wet suit past her hips as he watches. “Are you just going to watch?” She laughs, huffing at the annoyance of the thing.

“I’m enjoying the view,” he shrugs.

“Listen, I have something planned for a little later, so I want you to just go with the flow, okay? Once we leave the beach,” she warns him.

“Oh yeah?” He asks excitedly. “What is it?”

“It’s a surprise and no, no matter how much you badger me, I’m not going to tell you so don’t bother trying,” she warns, her finger pointing at him, as he grimaces, huffing. “Just do as I say and go along with whatever I say, got it?”

“Yes, mistress,” he salutes, standing and pushing his wetsuit down in one motion, revealing absolutely everything, before bending back down and pulling his swimming shorts back up.

“Really Roman?” She says exasperated. “What if someone else had been here?”

“Then they would have got a peak at what only millions would dream of,” he smirks as she rolls her eyes.

“More importantly, how the fuck did you get it off?!” She jumps up and down exasperated, still trying to push the wet suit down that seems to be fusing with her flesh at this point.

“Easy,” he shrugs. “I don’t have hips. You, however, have fucking delicious hips,” he says moving closer to her, grazing his hands against her hips.

“Stop that shit and help me off with this,” she orders, as he smiles, pushing himself up close to her body, grasping onto the wetsuit at her hips and pushing down hard, whilst planting a kiss to her neck.

“Roman. Stop,” she laughs as he moves all the way down her body, taking the suit with him, allowing her to lean on him as she steps out of each leg whilst he pulls it off her calves.

“See, I’m good for something,” he smiles, kneeling down in front of her as she sits down huffing.

“Good for many things,” she flirts, leaning down and pecking his lips, pulling back just in time as the others to hit the surface.

She quickly turns away as he passes her the wetsuit, jumping up and moving across to where he had left his phone.

“Oh my god. That was amazing,” they hear Tom shouting as they look up at each other through their eyelashes with a smirk.

****

They’re last to show up at the beach, eating first in a restaurant in its perimeter.

Gerri revealed at lunch that it was Roman’s birthday as everyone acted surprised and gave him a pat on the back.

Cyd, Dana, and Larry had secured them a good spot on the beach; Dana having ventured to some local stores to pick up some things for them to mess around with.

Roman is most excited by the beach ball of course, battering it in the air with Tom and Ray, trying to keep it up.

“Yeah, they had a bunch of things,” she explains to Gerri and Karolina who are sitting on the loungers next to her. “Mainly for kids but they do the job.”

Gerri was rubbing on some sunblock as she listened, digging her toes into the sand as she enjoyed the hot air hitting her body.

“What’d you find?” Karolina asks, sipping on a cocktail.

“Uhm,” Dana sits up, pulling the things out from under her lounger. “Well, the ball first and foremost,” she laughs, looking up as Ray dives towards the bum shot from Tom, missing it.

“You lose, Ray!” Tom shouts, sniggering with Roman.

“There was a rope for tug of war. Thought that would be a good bonding exercise. A little ball and a bat in case you wanted a little baseball? A frisbee?” She lists off, holding the frisbee up.

“Oh my god!” Roman shouts, hearing the conversation and running over to her. “Can I have the frisbee?”

“Sure,” Dana laughs passing it up to him, as Gerri and Karolina look up at him laughing.

“Need some help with your sunblock, Gerri? I can rub your back for you?” He wags his eyebrows.

“I don’t think you’d be able to handle it,” she fires back with a smirk.

“Fair point, boss. Don’t say I’m not considerate though,” he smiles walking away. “Wambsgans! Catch!” He shouts, sailing the frisbee over to Tom as he jumps up and catches it. “Niceeee!” He laughs.

“Does that boy ever stop?” Gerri laughs, exasperated, trying to cover her tracks, eying Karolina who’s hiding a grin behind her cocktail umbrella.

“I like the idea of tug a war,” Karolina throws in to help get the conversation back on track. “I did it once before at a corporate thing and it was actually a lot of fun.”

“I’m not fighting over a piece of rope,” Cyd growls. “There’s eleven of us though, I’ll be umpire and declare the winner.”

“How would we choose teams though?” Gerri asks. “It has to be relatively fair.”

“Uhm… we choose two team captains and they choose their teams?” Dana shrugs.

“Roman!” Karolina shouts to him as he throws the frisbee again, looking over to her expectantly, pushing his sunglasses up off the edge of his nose. “It’s your birthday. You want to play tug a war?”

“Fuck yeah!” He responds. “Come on guys! We’re playing tug of war!” He shouts to the others as they all gather together. Frank, Larry, and Joan getting off their loungers to gather around.

“We are doing two team captains and they choose their teams. Birthday boy, I assume you want to be one?” Karolina ventures, as everyone looks at him.

“Fuck yeah. And make Frank the other captain, I don’t want him in my team,” he smiles at Frank as half the team snigger and half the team roll their eyes.

“Fucking fine with me,” Frank hits back. “I’m going first.”

“Okay, let’s line up!” Gerri orders, standing up as Dana takes the rope and starts to lay it neatly on the ground.

“Why the fuck do you get to go first?” Roman shouts angrily as everyone brushes by him.

“Because I’m not a whiny little kid, that’s why. Now, let’s see who we have,” Frank hits back as looks around to everyone plausible. “Tom. Strongest of the bunch,” he declares confidently, clapping Tom on the back as he joins him

“Strongest,” Tom flexes. “You’re going down.”

Roman rolls his eyes, looking at the team, trying to suss out whether Gerri would be angry if he didn’t pick her first, or angry if he did.

“Uhm…. Cyd!” He shouts.

“I’m not playing. I’m umpire,” she growls out.

“What the fuck, why not?” Roman fires back.

“Because there is eleven of us. Don’t worry you’ll be okay without me to hold your hand. Pick someone else,” she throws back sarcastically.

“Wait? This was optional?” Frank asks with a sigh.

“Roman, just fucking pick someone,” Gerri says frustrated.

“Okey then, fucking Gerri,” he huffs, throwing his hands up at her annoyed.

“Flattering,” she rolls her eyes as she walks over to him.

“Hey, we fucking beat Frank and Karl. I was hoping for a little more of that magic,” he plays with her, hoping it wasn’t obvious.

“Karolina,” Frank declares as she smiles, walking over to him.

He looks over to Gerri, whispering in her ear, hoping to psych everyone out like they did before.

“Dana, Larry, and uhm… Ray?” She whispers to him.

“Fuck Ray. No one wants Ray,” he whispers back.

“Fucking pick someone already!” Frank shouts.

“Dana,” he declares, as he moves back to whisper bickering with Gerri, whilst Dana joins their team.

“Larry!” Frank declares as he claps Larry’s on the back when he approaches.

“Well that throws the whole thing up in the air,” he whispers to her.

“Pick Hugo,” she whispers back to him.

“Hugo!” He shouts, as Hugo approaches them. “We’re definitely stuck with Ray now,” he whispers furiously at her. “I should have got to pick first!”

“Joan!” Frank shouts as Joan runs into hug him.

“Not picked last!” Joan shouts enthusiastically, throwing her hands up in the air.

“Ray then,” he mumbles as Ray walks over to Roman, clearly surprised he’s been picked last.

“It’s okay, Ray!” Gerri encourages with a clapping of her hands. “We were going to choose you anyway!”

“Why was I picked last man?” Ray asks Roman as Roman rolls his eyes.

“Oh, gee whiz, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re an asshole?” Roman suggests with a bugging of his eyes, as Ray gets progressively angry.

“Roman enough. Come on. Team meeting,” Gerri declares loudly for the other team to hear.

“Okay, so here’s how it works guys. We just need to do the best we can. If we lose it’s fine. As long as we try our best it will be okay,” she smiles.

“That’s the strategy?” Roman looks at her incredulously.

“Do you have a better one?” She challenges him back dryly.

“Ehm… can I suggest something?” Dana asks.

“Go for it,” Roman encourages.

“The guy at the store gave me a tip and said that apparently you should have your strongest person at the back and second strongest at the front so maybe we should do that?” She shrugs.

“Genius,” Roman praises. “Okay so me at the back? Uhm…,” he looks around at everyone.

“Ray at the front,” Gerri decides, as Roman looks like he’s about to disagree, she cuts him off. “Hugo in the middle to balance it out?” She suggests, shrugging again.

“Fine with me,” Hugo confirms.

“Okay. I’ll go behind Hugo so I can direct,” Gerri confirms, as they all nod and break away.

“But I’m the team captain,” Roman whines.

“I’m the CEO. Now chop chop. Into position,” she smiles at him as they line up in formation, Cyd standing on the side lines eying everyone up.

“Oh, what’s that?” Ray shouts loudly. “Strongest person at the front? I guess I’ll take that position then,” he smiles brashly, moving to the front of their formation.

Frank looks up when he hears Ray talking, confers with Karolina before making a decision.

“Tom!” Frank shouts down the line. “Switch places. Strongest to the back,” he declares as he begins to walk forward.

“What the fuck, Ray?!” Roman seethes, Gerri wiping her face with her hand.

“What?” Ray asks innocently, holding up his hands.

“Subtle, Ray,” Gerri groans sighing, as Dana watches silently. 

“We’re fucked,” Hugo determines.

“You fucking moron,” Roman growls at Ray, ready to march down and kick his ass before Gerri blocks him with her body and Cyd starts speaking.

“Okay, here’s the rules,” she begins, holding her hands up. “I have drawn a line in the sand precisely in between both of you. The rope is long. So, the objective of the game is for you to pull hard enough that the first member of the other team steps over that line. I will determine when the person has gone over the line and declare the winner. Got it?” She asks looking around, seeing the nods and hearing the “yeaaaaaasssssssss” that escapes Roman.

“All right then. Pick up your ropes and when I whistle, you can begin,” she declares as they pick up the rope, both teams getting into position and leaning back slightly.

“Look ahead guys,” Gerri whispers. “Don’t get distracted and take your eyes off the prize.”

“Easy for you to say,” Roman whispers in her ear with a smirk as she rolls her eyes.

“Ready?” Cyd asks loudly, before lifting her fingers up to her mouth and whistling loudly.

Both teams start pulling on the rope hard, Roman’s team gaining a small advantage as they dig their heels in the sand, Frank fumbling a little at the front.

“Come on guys! That’s it! Pull!” Roman shouts, straining as he tries to take a step back, not really getting anywhere.

“Okay guys!” He hears Karolina shouting in the distance. “When I say Go, all right! 1… 2… 3… GO!” She shouts as their whole team give a giant tug at the same time, moving the rope forward, gaining a foot.

“Great job!” She hears Karolina shout.

“Fuck,” Gerri growls, her sunglasses gliding down her nose as a mix of sweat and sunblock provide an unwelcome chute.

“They have a fucking plan,” Roman strains, his words turning into a shout.

“Karolina’s done this before,” Gerri reveals through her wincing.

“Let’s do it again!” They hear Karolina shout. “1… 2… 3… GO!”

Frank’s team gaining another foot, them repeating this process two more times before Ray is not far from the line.

“My arms hurt!” Ray whines from the front.

“Shut the fuck up, Ray!” Roman shouts, straining to try and get any leverage back.

“Come on guys! Just concentrate! We can still pull this back!” Gerri shouts to her team, still trying to keep up momentum.

“I don’t think I can hold much longer,” she strains back to Roman.

“Keep going. Keep going,” he whispers, pulling hard.

“One last time guys! 1… 2… 3… GO!” Karolina shouts as Roman’s team are pulled a few inches from the line.

“Cyd, he’s over line!” Frank shouts as Cyd bends down at the hips slowly, looking closely.

“Nope, not yet. Still a little to go,” Cyd groans back, smiling to Frank smugly as he strains, sweat pouring down his face.

“Fucking Jesus,” Frank curses, still trying to pull.

“I think I’m going to die!” They hear Joan shout, everyone unable to hold back their laughter.

“Very last time!” Karolina shouts.

“I can’t hold on. It’s slipping,” Ray winces, straining to keep hold of the rope.

“Don’t let fucking go you fuckwit!” Roman shouts.

“1…2…,” Karolina shouts with a giggle, however, before she can shout GO, they hear Ray shouting, letting go of the rope and slipping back so his foot pushes through the sand, his foot moving clearly over the line as Frank’s team fall backwards as the winners, Roman’s team falling back as the losers.

“Frank’s team win!” Cyd shouts loudly as Frank’s team jump up screaming with joy, hugging one another and high fiving, whilst Joan remains lying on the floor catching her breath.

Roman’s team remain lying on the floor, catching their breath; Roman picking up a handful of sand and throwing it in anger. Dana gets up first, whilst Hugo rolls over so he’s not against Gerri, whilst she remains puffed out, lying between Roman’s legs, trying to catch her breath, as Ray sits up, looking back at them reticently, shrugging an apology.

“You suck, Ray!” Roman shouts.

“I couldn’t help it!” Ray fires back.

“Stop being a sore loser, Roman,” Gerri breathes as she sits up, pushing her sunglasses back up properly. “It’s okay, Ray. You did a good job.”

Roman watches angrily as Ray stands up, moving with Hugo and Dana to congratulate the other team.

“Help me up,” Gerri directs him as he jumps up onto his feet, standing in front of her and taking her hands to pull her as she wipes sand off the backs of her legs. “You need to be supportive to your team even if you lose.”

“I am supportive to my team! I’m just not supportive to Ray! He’s a dickhead,” he moans, watching as her skin glistens against the sun.

“That comment yesterday really got to you, didn’t it?” She smirks.

“I do have a fucking girlfriend, Gerri,” he whispers frantically.

“Then if you know that and I know that, why do you care if he knows that,” she quirks an eyebrow, turning around and moving towards the other team. “Come on,” she beckons him without looking back.

They go around each of the team members, hugging and congratulating them as Roman tries not to be a sore loser.

“Rematch!” He declares strongly.

“No fucking way,” Gerri laughs as Joan finally sits up.

“If you want me to come back in a fucking body bag then sure,” Joan jests.

“What about something else then? What do we have Dana?” Roman asks.

“Volleyball and baseball,” she answers shrugging.

“Volleyball, it is,” Roman declares.

“I’d rather do baseball,” Frank smiles. “And since we’re the winners, I think we should choose. Baseball, team?” He turns around looking around at them smiling as they agree.

“Fuck you, fine. We will beat your ass at baseball as well. Come on Team Roman,” Roman declares as he walks away.

“I’ll stay as umpire. What should we use for bases?” Cyd asks with a shrug as Dana moves to get the ball and bat.

“Can just use some clothing?” Gerri determines as a few of them walk over to the loungers to offer up clothing, walking back to spread them out not too far.

“Closer than that, Gerri. I think Joan’s going to have a coronary,” Cyd whispers as Gerri laughs along.

“Gerri. Hurry the fuck up. We’re trying to game this out!” Roman screams.

“Will you finish?” She quirks a knowing eyebrow at Cyd, as Cyd takes the t-shirt off her before she approaches her team.

“Okay, what have you got so far?”

“Ray used to be a catcher,” Roman declares smugly.

“In college,” he looks around to her worried.

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Roman shrugs.

“How are you with catching, Gerri?” Dana asks.

“I mean, I can catch a ball if it comes towards me… But I’m a better thrower,” she shrugs.

“What about pitching then?” Roman asks, passing her the soft ball. “Throw me it,” he says holding the bat up.

Gerri throws the ball directly to the bat, allowing a decent attempt.

“Okay, okay,” he runs towards the ball, picking it up and walking up to her. “Want to psych them out?” He whispers.

“Always,” Gerri grins mischievously.

“Okay. Try and throw it from the side, overarm not under arm. It makes it easier for them to hit it if you do underarm,” he whispers before putting the ball in her hand and running over. “Throw it right here, Gerri,” he shouts, holding his hands in front of himself.

She stands firmly, digging her feet into the sand, putting on her harshest expression, as she throws it hard to Roman, directly into his hands as he stands in awe. She smirks as he beams back at her, throwing it over as she catches.

“One more time!” He laughs as he looks over to everyone watching them, whispering between himself. “You’re not even trying,” he shouts over.

She has to stifle a laugh as she throws it directly to his hands again, standing tall as she chances a glance over to Frank, shrugging her shoulders.

_She doesn’t need to tell them that she used to be the fucking pitcher for her brother back home for basically four years of her life when he wanted to practice his swing._

Roman runs towards her again, putting the ball in her hand.

“You sly fucking bitch. You didn’t say you’ve done this before,” he laughs.

“You didn’t ask,” she shrugs.

“Okay, we only have three bases, right? Catcher is going to be home plate because we don’t have the people?” Roman asks.

“Yeah,” Gerri looks around.

“Okay, I’ll go second base. I can catch and run. Dana you want to go third base. Hugo you go first?”

Hugo shrugs, “sure,” as Dana nods.

“You want to do the shit we did on the yacht?” Roman asks Gerri.

She nods, looking around to the team.

“Okay,” he giggles a little. “We’re going to fuck with them. When we played volleyball, we basically conferred between every shot. Kept having little talks, pointing at shit, pretending we had a play. Kept referring to a plan just to psych them out,” he laughs as the others join in.

“Genius,” Dana comments, nodding at them.

“The key is communication,” Gerri reiterates exactly what she had told Roman that afternoon. “We adjust to the play. Communicate the strengths and improve upon them, expose the weaknesses and capitalise on them. Adjust our play accordingly,” she explains.

They all nod as Gerri turns towards Cyd and the other team now, her own team following her lead.

“What’s the rules then?” Frank asks.

“I think we should reduce the innings. Nine is too much. Take it down to five. Still three strikes, still three outs to change over. I assume you want to start on the field?” Gerri quirks her eyebrows at him.

“Fucking obviously,” he scoffs, nudging Larry.

“Why do you get to go first?! You chose the game!” Roman protests.

“Roman, be a good sport. They won, let them go first,” she says far to calmly, smiling too broadly, a definite trick up her sleeve.

“Fine,” Roman smiles sweetly.

“The pitched ball has to be hittable,” Cyd declares. “I will decide when someone is out. I and I alone,” she directs at everyone with narrow eyes.

“Do you have something to keep score?” Gerri asks her kindly.

“Yeah. Will keep a note on my phone,” she says holding her phone up and shaking it. “Okay guys. Let’s get in position.”

They move up behind the starting plate, noting as Larry walks towards them to be the catcher, Frank moving forward to pitch as Joan takes first base, Tom on second, and Karolina on third.

“Who’s good at batting?” Roman asks, swinging the bat around. “I’m fine going first. Ray, you played college baseball. You want to go second?”

“Uhm… okay,” Ray shrugs.

“I’m probably going to be terrible. I’m more of a football fan,” Hugo grimaces.

“Okay, Hugo last,” Roman determines looking at Dana and Gerri, as they look to each other.

“I’ll go third,” Gerri shrugs, exhaling deeply.

“So, I’m fourth,” Dana smiles, looking out to their makeshift field.

Roman steps up to the plate, swinging his bat around, watching as Frank stretches his legs out, swinging his arm in a circle, in an apparent attempt to loosen up.

Roman can’t help himself and bursts out laughing, buckled over at the sight before.

“What the fuck are you laughing at?” Frank asks.

“I’m sorry,” he splutters. “I just can’t take you seriously.”

“Come on boys,” Cyd shouts from the side. “Play nice!”

“Okay, sorry,” he says, running his hand down his face, changing his expression from grinning to serious.

“Come on, Rome! You’ve got this,” Gerri claps her hands as the others cheer alongside her.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Roman lowers the bat. “If I hit it in the ocean, is that considered out of the park?”

“No, because that would be between third and home plate which is a foul ball,” Frank states condescendingly, laughing.

“Frank,” Roman says pulling a face. “The whole pitch is a fucking diamond. We need to hit it left or right. That rule doesn’t fucking apply. There is nowhere else to hit it,” he fires back, with his hands raised in the air.

“He has a point,” Cyd agrees. “Just don’t hit it in the ocean, Roman.”

“Hey, I can’t control this fucking athleticism,” he protests, gesturing to his body.

“Well, try,” Cyd throws back at him.

“Okay, but if I _were_ to _accidentally_ hit it in the ocean, would it be an automatic home run?”

“Yes, but you’d also be the one going into the fucking sea to get it back,” she reasons challengingly.

“Noted,” he points at her. “You may resume, sire!”

Frank sighs as he throws the first ball, Roman swiping right by it.

“Strike One!” Cyd calls loudly, as Larry throws it back to Frank over Roman’s head.

Roman sighs as he looks up to Frank’s smug expression.

“In the ocean, yeah?” Frank sniggers.

“Throw the fucking ball you geriatric moron,” Roman shouts as he sets himself up for the next hit. The second ball flying right by his face.

“No way. That was a fucking wild pitch!” Roman shouts.

“That was valid!” Frank protests.

“First strike, go again,” Cyd declares.

“Are you kidding me? You’re playing favourites!” Frank accuses her, pointing.

“I am not!” Cyd protests angrily. “It was a shitty throw, Frank. Get over it and throw the fucking ball,” she declares as Gerri begins to smirk, Roman sticking out his tongue in defiance.

Frank throws the ball again, Roman battering it past Karolina as he drops the bat, running wildly across the sand, tripping up a little until he gets to Joan’s base, looking over her to see if Karolina had the ball yet.

“Go for Second!” He hears his team shout, Gerri louder than them all.

Realising Karolina still hadn’t grasped the ball, he sprints for second base. He looks over when the calls for him to run become louder, realising Karolina’s picked up the ball now, he sprints harder, his feet still sinking into the sand holding him back as he dives for second base before Tom can get the ball.

“Safe!” Cyd declares as their team cheer, whilst Ray steps up to the plate.

“Oh my god,” Roman puffs. “It’s so much harder running in sand than you think.”

“It really is,” Karolina agrees as they look to Ray.

“Come on, Ray,” Roman encourages clapping. “Send me home.”

However, Ray hits the ball on his first go a little pathetically, Frank scrambling forward to get to it as Roman sprints to the third base, Ray falling over as he tries to run. When Frank gets a hold of the ball, Roman is just approaching the base, Ray midway through. Frank throws it to Joan who catches it and sends Ray out, Roman settling at third base comfortably.

“You’re out, Ray,” Cyd declares as he walks head hung back to his team.

Gerri walks up to the plate, trying to remember the fucking tactics her brother used to teach her when she was a kid.

“Gerri Alert!” Roman calls again as Tom joins in laughing.

“Bring me home!” Roman shouts even louder, as he gets into a running position, ready for her to hit the ball. Frank throws it as she hits it on the first go, the ball flying swiftly past Tom, as she drops the bat and runs as fast as she can, watching as Tom chases after it, nearly at first base as she hears Roman screaming behind her having hit home, she watches as Tom bends down, falling over, trying to pick up the ball in the distance, deciding to take the chance and sprint for second base.

Tom could easily outrun her, but he was currently face planting the sand. She’s half-way there, when he finally gets up, trying to run to get her, she just touching the base as he falls just short, throwing the ball at the base like it would make a fucking difference.

“Safe!” Cyd declares. “And a home run for Roman. One to Zero for Team Roman,” she declares, typing on her phone.

“Fucking Gerri!!!!” Roman screams, jumping up and punching the air.

She smiles in the distance, raising her hands up, making peace signs, jerking her hands up and down as she pouts, earning a laugh from everyone.

“Fuck,” Tom gasps buckled over. “It is actually so hard running in the sand.”

“Come on Dana!” Gerri shouts as Dana picks up the bat. “You’ve got this Dana.”

However, Dana doesn’t get a hit until her third go, hitting directly towards Karolina who catches it easily, stepping on her base, putting both Dana and Gerri out.

“Dana and Gerri, you’re both out. Three outs. Switch over!” Cyd declares, as Dana grimaces turning to her team apologising.

“It’s fine!” Roman says patting her back as he walks up onto the makeshift pitch.

Karolina hands the ball to Gerri, laughing at Frank’s earlier exchange with Cyd, “did you see how she just shut him up?” Karolina laughs harder, as Roman and Dana approach.

“What are we laughing at?” Roman whispers.

“How Cyd gave Frank the beat down,” Gerri giggles, trying to hide her laugh by rubbing her nose, not wishing to offend Frank.

“It was glorious. One of the top moments of the 21st century. I might have to marry her,” Roman declares as Karolina begins backing away to join her team.

“Good luck with that,” Gerri laughs, moving with Karolina to the centre.

“What?” Frank narrows his eyes at the plate.

“Roman wants to marry Cyd,” Karolina laughs, looking at Cyd, who looks up, her expression completely unmoving.

“Oh really?” Cyd growls flatly.

“Please Cyd,” Roman drops to his knees, his hand on his heart. “Make me the happiest man on Earth and allow me to stand at your side as you berate Frank every time he approaches us, my love,” he declares dramatically, waiting for her response, whilst everyone sniggers, Gerri rolling her eyes as she puts her hand on her hip watching him.

“Roman, you’re a little too old for my taste,” Cyd fires back without thought.

“Good sport, Cyd,” Gerri claps as she turns her attention back to Frank.

“Alas! I will have to return to my father without your hand,” he winces dramatically.

“Roman, get up,” Gerri directs, looking at him over her shoulder, waiting until he stands with a grin, before turning her attention back to Frank.

“Don’t worry, I’ll go easy on you,” Gerri smiles, as she gets into position.

“I don’t want any favours from you… Kellman,” Frank hits back with a smile, getting his bat ready.

She smiles before she throws a fast ball right by him, Ray catching it quickly.

“Strike One!” Cyd declares smiling.

“Lucky throw,” Frank declares, until Gerri throws another one right by him again.

“Strike Two!” Cyd cries.

“Must be a REALLY lucky throw,” Roman shouts in the distance.

Frank steps back a little, changing tactics, before she throws it again, getting a hit this time, it speeding along the ground towards Dana as she blocks it with her foot, bending down to pick it up and throwing it to Gerri, who turns to through it to Hugo, Frank just hitting the base before he catches it.

“Safe!” Cyd declares. “For now.”

“This is fucking biased!” Frank declares, holding his hand out to Cyd.

“I’m teasing, goddammit. Lighten up!” Cyd growls.

“SEE THIS IS WHY YOUR MARRIAGE MATERIAL!” Roman shouts loudly over to her.

Tom’s up next, Gerri throwing a fast ball at him as he hits it hard between Dana and Roman, Roman already running towards it as Frank speeds towards his base. When he finally gets it, he races Frank to the base, Roman plunging into the air and onto it a second before Frank reaches it.

“Frank, you’re out!” Cyd declares.

“This is a fucking fix!” Frank shouts.

“Frank, you genuinely just missed it,” Tom shrugs.

“Don’t you fucking start!” Frank says walking towards his team.

Karolina is up next, swinging her bat, as Roman walks slowly up to Gerri, figuring it’s time for some strategy bullshit.

“Fuck. Frank usually doesn’t get so riled. This isn’t like him,” Roman whispers to Gerri as he glances to Karolina.

“You’ve clearly never seen Frank watch a game of baseball. It’s the only thing he ever gets passionate about,” she whispers back smiling.

“You striking Frank out twice was really fucking hot,” he whispers, pointing over to Tom at second base.

“You need to lay off Cyd or I’ll start to think you don’t want me,” she whispers back.

“I’ll lay off,” he whispers. “But only because I can’t think of myself with anyone but you,” he breathes into her ear, her face struggling not to burst into a grin.

“Right, got it,” she declares seriously as he runs back to his base, clapping his hands.

“Let’s do this, guys!” He shouts, psyching everyone up.

Karolina hits the ball towards Dana this time, Dana struggling to pick it up quickly as Tom reaches second base successfully. Larry turns out to be the hidden treasure, battering the ball high over Roman’s head as he struggles to get anywhere near back in time. Karolina reaching home, and Larry going the full distance.

“Three to One to Frank’s team,” Cyd declares loudly.

“It’s okay, team,” Roman claps. “We’ll get it back.”

Next up is Joan.

_Poor fucking Joan._

Gerri strikes her out twice with hard balls, Joan barely holding the bat properly, laughing and joking at herself that she is completely shit at the game. Gerri in a fit of giggles along with everyone else as Joan tries to swing dramatically. Gerri even throws it under arm to her hoping that she can hit something. _Afterall the name of the game is to have fun, isn’t it?_

However, Joan even misses that.

“Three Strikes! You’re out! Two outs for Frank’s team!”

They’re back to Frank as he walks up smugly, Gerri ready to wipe the grin off his face.

He misses the first fast ball she throws him, his confidence thrown a little. However, when he successfully hits the second ball, it whizzes through the air, towards Roman, about to pass Gerri when she reaches her hand out and catches it firmly.

“No fucking way,” Frank sighs as he stops running, Roman’s disbelief evident behind her as he screams in awe.

“You’re out! Three out! Second Inning. Switch over,” Cyd declares loudly.

“We are not worthy,” Roman shouts, on the ground, paying homage to Gerri.

“Was that rigged as well, Frank?” Cyd asks him with a sly smile. “Did we replace Gerri’s arm with a bionic one that I’m controlling remotely?”

“Fuck off,” he groans under his breath, walking away.

“How the fuck did you do that?” Dana asks as Gerri smiles embarrassed, watching as Frank’s team moves towards the pitch.

“I don’t know. It just happened,” she shrugs.

“Good catch, Gerri,” Joan praises, touching her arm as she passes her.

“Thank you,” Gerri responds kindly.

“That was like some shit out of a League of their own,” Karolina gawks. “What the fuck, Gerri?”

“Sorry Cyd,” Roman shouts, getting up off the ground. “I need to marry Gerri now. She just pulled a killer move sending Frank out. I hope you understand,” he tells her soberly.

“How will I ever cope,” Cyd gruffs out flatly.

Gerri simply rolls her eyes, moving back to the batting area with her team.

The game moves relatively quickly. Frank’s team leading 5 to 4 when the fifth and final inning begins. The game so far had hardly been momentous. Joan still hadn’t hit the ball, no matter how many gentle underarm throws Gerri gave her. They had strategized throughout, singling out Karolina as the fastest runner, Larry as the best hitter, Tom as the best catcher. Frank was too busy pointing out any rules to be a front runner in any of the areas.

However, they also realised that Dana could pack a hit as well, though no one had secured a home run since Larry. Hugo had done well getting a few people out when the ball had got to him quickly enough, Ray proving himself to be relatively useless, not that anyone was surprised by it; Frank certainly not giving him the leeway she was giving Joan.

However, as the fifth inning began, tensions were beginning to heighten.

“Come on guys. We can pull this back. Just two home runs and then it’s they who need to catch up,” Gerri whispers, huddling with the team before Roman is about to step up.

They break away, Dana running up to the loungers to get a drink of water, Hugo and Ray whispering to one another as Hugo tries to show Ray how he could swing better to hit a semi-decent ball.

Gerri takes the opportunity to pull Roman aside, trying to give some encouragement.

_He had been hitting well, but she knew he could do better. She had to go back to previous tactics that lead him to flourishing when they had played volleyball._

“How you feeling about it?” She ventures, watching as he balances the weight of the bat.

“Uhm… fine,” he shrugs, looking at the bat.

“You know you can do it, right? You can get a home run. Show them all,” she whispers near his ear seductively.

“You think so?” He breathes, his eyes boring into hers as they glaze over.

“Oh, yeah,” she responds gruffly, as though it were obvious. “I’m positive, Rome. I’ve seen the way you hit. Your form. The way your muscles tense. How fast you run,” she breathes into his ear. “And I have to admit, it’s a fucking turn on,” she whispers, her cupped hand around his ear hiding her bottom lip grazing his lobe.

He pulls back, trying to resist the urge to roll his eyes back at the sound of her voice, to wrap his arm around her waist, throw her over his shoulder and slam her into a lounger so he can fuck her.

“This ones for you, babe,” he growls in a whisper into her ear as he backs away, noting the pull of her lips, trying not to smirk.

“Do me proud,” she says loudly for everyone to hear when he moves to the plate.

“If I get a home run, will you marry me then?” He asks flirtatiously.

She rolls her eyes.

“No, but I’ll maybe try and hit Frank when I’m batting,” she offers back as everyone sniggers, Frank huffing at Gerri’s betrayal.

“Hey, I’m incentivising,” she shrugs at Frank with a pout.

“I’ll take it,” Roman shouts, pointing his bat at Frank and then up to the sky.

Roman misses the first throw, it whizzing by him easily to Larry’s waiting hands.

“Strike one,” Cyd declares, as Roman starts jumping on the spot, psyching himself up.

“That was just a practice run,” Roman dismisses as he gets back into position.

He hits the next one, the throw a little dodgy, the bat hitting it as it semi rolls across the sand to Frank who plunges to grab it, Roman kind of half skipping as he looks to Cyd for her view.

“Wild pitch. Strike one. Go again!” She declares.

“How the fuck was that a wild pitch?!” Frank protests, storming towards Cyd, kicking sand at her feet. “He fucking hit it.”

“Yeah and it was a shit hit because it was a shit throw,” she responds back calmly.

“You always take the kids side! You’re playing fucking favourites,” he points at her, as Roman snorts, attempting to hold in laughter, back at the plate, waiting to go.

“Come on, Frank,” Gerri pleads. “Let it go. It was a bum pitch.”

“It fucking wasn’t!” Frank shouts. “Larry! Was it a wild pitch?”

Larry stands behind Roman, scratching the back of his neck, “Ehm…”

“That’s a yes. He just doesn’t want you to start shouting at him and take your ball home with you,” Roman laughs.

“Stay out of this you,” Frank points aggressively at Roman.

“Frank,” Karolina shouts. “It was a wild pitch. Just throw another one.”

Frank huffs, his narrowing eyes hidden by his sunglasses.

Gerri is pretty sure she hears “fucking ridiculous,” being muttered under his breath.

“You okay, Frankie?” Roman teases. “You need some warm milk and a nap after that fit?”

“Fuck you,” Frank shouts, before throwing a fast ball, Roman ready for it, hitting it hard into the sky, beginning to run as everyone watches the ball fly over their heads, Roman slowing down to see where the ball is as he starts approaching first base, the ball landing just beyond the shore, into the water.

“Is that out of the park?” He asks excitedly to Cyd. “A home fucking run?”

Everyone’s mouths dropping open as they wait for Cyd’s decision.

“Home run to Team Roman. 6 each.”

Roman screams, jumping into the air, running slowly to each of the bases, high fiving Joan at the first, smacking Tom on the back of the head at the second as Tom looks to the shore to see if he can see the ball, Karolina rolling her eyes as he cartwheels next to her, and finally running to the home plate, forward rolling over it and lying on his back as his team continue to cheer.

“Okay, okay,” Cyd tries to calm everyone down. “Now go get the ball Roman.”

“Gladly,” he smiles, jumping up and skipping to the shoreline, kicking the waves as he looks for the ball. He finally ducks under the water, disappearing for a moment as everyone chats between themselves, watching for him re-emerging.

He finally jumps up, knee deep with the ball in hand, wading out of the water and up to them.

“Was that sexy as fuck? Did I look like a Bond girl? Ursula Andress?” He winks at Karolina.

“Oh yeah,” Karolina nods, indulging him sarcastically.

“Sure, you don’t want to marry a stud like me, Gerri?” He asks as he hands the ball back to Frank.

“Oh yeah, after you walking out of a foot of water, you’ve changed my mind. The fact that you’re a massive pain in my ass doesn’t even matter anymore. Should we call the caterers now?” She responds sarcastically, with a pointed look.

“Wow,” Roman looks around to Frank. “Stick with me kid. We’ll have you remarried in no time,” he smiles before running back over to his team laughing.

“Let’s get on with this. Ray, you’re up,” Frank declaring frustrated.

Ray again hits a mediocre ball, reaching first base only, as Gerri hits a demi decent ball, though Ray gets tagged out at second base.

Dana ends up hitting a good ball, getting Gerri to third base, Dana going for second base before running back to first when she sees Tom plunging towards second.

Hugo’s up next, hitting a shitty short ball which gets Gerri ground out by Larry and Dana to second.

“You’re out, Gerri. Two out!” Cyd shouts loudly.

It’s back to Roman, who pumped from his previous hit, boldly walks up to the plate, deliberately bunts the ball slightly towards Frank, before sprinting to first as Frank scrambles to reach it.

“Loserrrrrr,” Roman shouts to Frank as he gets there before Frank can through it to Joan.

“Come on, Ray. You’ve got this!” Dana pumps up Ray as he approaches the plate. Much to everyone’s surprise, Ray hits a screamer a good thirty feet behind Tom, allowing Roman and Ray to sprint as fast as they can through the sand as Dana, Gerri, and Hugo scream their support from the side lines, directing for Roman to keep on going to home plate as Tom throws the ball short to Karolina, whilst Ray passes second base, watching as the ball buries into the sand next to him.

Karolina has to scramble towards second base to try and get to it whilst Roman hits home, Ray still running with all his might, passing third base as Karolina bends to retrieve the ball, Roman’s whole team screaming for him to run. Karolina, however, it too slow in her throw to Larry as Ray dives towards the plate.

“Safe!” Cyd shouts as Roman’s team cheer. “8 to 6 for Roman’s team.”

Roman jumps on top of Ray, hugging him, pecking his face, and ruffling his hair as the rest of the team jump around beside them.

“Get a fucking move on,” Frank calls angrily as Roman finally let’s Ray up. Ray’s cheeks pink with embarrassment, his chest puffing a little.

Gerri steps up to the plate, hitting a high ball that Tom catches immediately with a smug laugh.

“Gerri’s out. Three out. Switch over,” Cyd announces as everyone takes their places, taking the whole thing very seriously now as Frank steps up to the plate.

Gerri switches it up, throwing a few softer balls to throw him off, creating two strikes before he hits the third one, sprinting to second base as Roman races to ground him out, not getting to him in time. Next up is Tom, the buffoon hitting the ball too high, Roman running towards it as Gerri also backs into it, Roman catching it over her head as they bump into each other, knocking him on his ass he continues to hold the ball up and throws it to Ray before Frank can consider running to home.

“Tom, you’re out! One out!” Cyd shouts.

Karolina is next, hitting a decent ball towards Roman as he runs to get it, just picking it up, Frank sailing through home plate, whilst Karolina sticks at first base smiling.

“8 to 7 to Roman’s team. One out!”

Larry is next up, hitting a mediocre ball towards Dana but earning him a spot at first base.

However, the biggest shock of all comes from Gerri’s soft throw to Joan who actually hits it. Everyone is so shocked, including Joan, that they forget to run for the ball, Joan jogging on the spot excitedly having hit it that her team has to start shouting to encourage her to run. Joan gets over excited, throwing the bat behind her, plonking Ray on the head with it.

He shouts in pain, as she continues running, shouting an apology over her shoulder as Gerri runs for the ball, deliberately throwing it badly to Hugo so that Joan can settle at first base, though Joan runs directly into Hugo, knocking him over and falling on top of him. It earns a series of laughs as Hugo tries to push a laughing Joan off of him to reach the ball. Hugo eventually gets it and throws it to Karolina forcing Larry to run back to second.

“I hit the ball!” Joan shouts when she gets up, curtseying when she gets a round of applause from everyone, Roman offering some whoops for her achievement.

Franks up again, Gerri noting how he is struggling under the pressure, his breathing deep.

“Roman,” Gerri beckons him over as they meet each other half-way. “I’m aiming for Frank. Throw it to wherever Frank is. Joan won’t get very far. Let her have another base,” she says quietly to him, as he nods, returning to his post.

Frank hits it on the first go, bunting it to Gerri which she had expected from his different holding of the bat. However, he overhits it so it’s near her as she runs towards it, dropping to her knee to grasp it, throwing it to Hugo quickly as Frank plunges.

“Safe,” Cyd calls.

“Fuck,” Gerri grimaces, groaning in pain as she gets up from her bent position.

“I got to second base!” Joan celebrates again, as Roman high fives her.

“Bet it’s not the first time that’s happened,” Roman jokes.

“Not with my Ritchie,” she laughs back as he chuckles, hugging her from the side.

Gerri looks around to Roman, “same play,” she shouts to him as he gives her a salute.

Karolina is up next, Gerri swiping the first ball by her, the second gaining a healthy hit, it grazing along the sand past Gerri and straight into Roman’s hand’s as he grounds out Frank.

“You’re out, Frank!” Cyd declares. “Two out. One to go. 8 to 7 for Roman’s team.”

“Okay guys! Let’s get this done!” Gerri announces clapping, beckoning them all forward, whilst they meet her in the middle.

“We need to get out Joan. If she makes this, she wins them the game,” Gerri announces.

“I feel bad,” Dana reveals with a sad expression.

“I’ll buy her a fucking cocktail later,” Roman announces. “Let’s do this.”

“Dana,” Gerri directs to her. “He usually hits towards you. Step back a little.”

“Okay,” she nods.

They all split apart as Gerri approaches to throw to Larry.

She throws the first one past him, as he sighs deeply.

“Strike one!” Cyd shouts.

Gerri takes a deep breath, trying to remember the throws her brother has taught her when she was a kid.

She throws the next one, trying to curve it a little, Larry missing it. 

“Wild pitch!” Cyd declares. “One strike.”

Gerri takes a deep breath again, throwing another fast ball at him as he swings and misses again.

“Strike Two,” Cyd declares.

They are all deadly silent. The whole thing resting on this shot. On where it’s going to go. On whether they can get it to Ray on time.

Gerri takes a deep breath. Ready to try the curve ball one more time. She lifts her leg and throws it hard towards him, everything going in slow motion as Larry takes a swing at the ball, missing it by an inch, the ball going directly into Ray’s hand.

Gerri gasps, her jaw hanging open.

“Strike Three! You’re out! Roman’s team win!” Cyd declares as Gerri only hears buzzing, feels Roman hugging her from behind, watches as Ray runs towards her screaming, Dana approaching from her right and Hugo from her left. She looks over to see Frank’s team slowly clapping, Joan eagerly clapping above her head.

She turns around to look at her team, taking in their huge grins.

“Team Roman!” Roman shouts, jumping up into the air and punching high as Dana hugs Gerri. Hugo shaking Ray’s hand.

The teams merge together with handshakes and hugs; a mix of emotions, from the scale of Frank bitterly congratulating everyone to Joan excitedly praising each member of Roman’s team whilst talking about her one hit.

It quiets down then, everyone ordering more drinks as they relax on the loungers, chatting about everything and anything; thankful for the lack of Waystar conversation. Gerri only glancing at the numerous emails that had waved in that day a few times, not answering one.

“We should probably get a move on, Roman,” Gerri directs at him at 4pm, with an expectant look, trying to indicate that this is his signal to play along.

“Oh yeah!” He catches on immediately. “I nearly forgot.”

“Where are you going?” Dana asks as Gerri stands up, collecting her items.

“We need to go pay for everything, sign some things,” she shrugs as though the thought of having to do so was completely exasperating.

“Why would you both need to do that?” Frank asks suspiciously, his tone a little sharper than usual, probably sore from his loss.

_She had thought of this earlier. Had tried to think of every possible avenue of questioning._

“As you know Frank and as Larry can back up,” she begins authoritatively. “The CEO needs to sign off something of this high an expense, but it’s Roman who booked it all so it’s in his name. He needs to come with me so they can confirm the booking before I pay.”

“It’s pretty standard,” Karolina chimes in supportively.

_Thank god for Karolina._

Frank shrugs, closing his eyes, turning his head back to look at the water.

_Well, he seems to be buying it._

“Come on,” Roman groans. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t want to spend my whole birthday paying for a fucking villa.”

She rolls her eyes, beginning to follow him.

“See you back at the villa! Enjoy the rest of your time soaking up the sun,” she smiles as she begins walking away from them.

They continue walking together until they reach the paved area, spotting the hired cars that had brought them here earlier in a line.

“So, where are we going?” He asks her.

“You’ll see,” is all she offers with a knowing smile.


	4. Saturday evening/night

He follows her dutifully to the car, surprised when she directs the driver to open the trunk, instead of getting in.

“Here,” she says, shoving a backpack into his hands. “Go change.”

He scoffs, looking down at this fucking backpack he’s never seen before.

“What the fuck?”

“That is your backpack,” she says in mock condescension for the benefit of the driver who hands her a large woven purse. “You go to the changing area and you change into the shit you packed. That’s how this works.” She’s mocking him by talking to him as if he’s a child though he understands why when she finishes with a smile as she thanks the driver, making her way over to the changing area, as he throws the backpack onto his back and sprints to catch up to her.

“You packed me a fucking bag?” He chuckles, speaking as low as possible so no one hears.

“Yeah, while you were in the shower this morning. It’s just a few things. Now stop asking questions and get changed, we’re on a schedule,” she directs as she moves into the women’s restroom/changing room.

“I’ll get you here!” He shouts as she acknowledges him with a thumbs up in the air, refusing to stop to look at him.

He’s waiting outside for her when she reappears. Both of them in jeans and a t-shirt, her eyebrow quirked as she evaluates him.

**He can’t help noticing the amalgamation of the various informal Gerri’s he’s been privy to. The one he seen in London, dressed down casually, still looking hot as fuck. Then the Gerri he had seen just out of the shower first thing in the morning, the hints of curls as her wet hair had begun to dry before she blow dried it completely straight. He’s never seen this whole Gerri. Looking like a completely different fucking person in her casual wear, her hair curly up in a ponytail, having naturally dried from scuba diving, no opportunity to tame it with their busy schedule. He wants to see it down. Wants to see how the ringlets look around her face; wants to see her in her primal state.**

“I chose well,” she determines with an appraising flirtatious smirk as she leads the way to the car, he following her again; all he seems to ever do now.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Be patient,” she mumbles as they get to the car, handing the bags back to the driver with a smile before jumping into the back.

He sits silently, his knee bouncing in excitement as he looks out his window, her window, the front windscreen to figure out where they’re going. However, he’s surprised to see them pull up inside an Avis.

“That’s us here,” she declares as she gets out the car.

“Are we renting a car?” He asks with a furrowed eyebrow, his hands thrown up in the air.

“No, Roman. This is the surprise. You’re going to do a back shift in car rental,” she throws sarcastically.

“So, we’re renting a car,” he huffs following her in.

He looks around the walls, reading the various signs of the models they have as she speaks to the clerk. **Signing shit? Paying for shit? He doesn’t fucking know.**

“Here you go, ma’am. The car is in bay four which is just to your left as you exit the building,” the young guy informs her as Roman turns around and sees her being handed a set of keys.

“Thank you,” she smiles before turning around to Roman, gesturing for him to follow her out to the car.

“Well, what did we get? Mercedes? Lambo? Bugatti?” He asks excitedly as she continues walking to the car, gesturing to their driver to follow her with the bags.

She presses the button on the fob she’s holding, their car sounding off whilst its lights flash.

He stops dead in his tracks, looking around to her.

“A fucking Ford?” He asks grimacing, looking around to her as she presses the button to open the trunk, directing the driver with the bags.

“Get in the car. I’ll be there in a minute,” she orders him with a quirked eyebrow, no room for negotiation.

“I’m not driving?” He asks.

“You don’t know where we’re going,” she challenges back, as the driver approaches.

He huffs, sculking around to the passenger side, slamming the door shut, beginning to fiddle with all the things there. He opens the glove compartment, sifting through to see if there is more than a car manual in there, moving quickly to the middle area, pushing the cup holder compartments around, pulling the arm rest up and down. He looks into the backseat, sees the room there, watching as the driver slams the trunk door shut and then Gerri talking to the guy through the rear-view window. He moves back to looking at shit, turning the radio on and fiddling with the channels, when she opens the door, he turns the volume down.

“I repeat,” he says as she passes him her purse, “a fucking Ford?” He asks, taking it and sitting it next to him on the roomy seat.

“It’s an Explorer. I was going to get a Jaguar F-type, but I realised that it was better not to draw attention,” she groans as she moves up into the seat, obscuring something between herself and the window whilst she closes the door, whilst he tries to look around her, though her words distract him from his curiosity.

“We went from Jag to Ford? Fuck,” he whispers as he looks out his window.

“Oh my god. All you do is complain. Here,” she grunts, pulling out a perfectly wrapped box and passing it over to him. “Happy birthday,” she smiles as he looks up to her excitedly.

“A gift? I thought you said it was back home?” He asks, picking it up and shaking it.

“There is one back one. This is just a small thing,” she shrugs off as she types the destination into the Maps on her phone, selecting the destination and moving it onto the phone holder, whilst he starts ripping it open.

“Oh wow,” he whispers. “A polaroid camera? I had one of these when I was a kid. Not like this one, this one’s cool, but you know one of those big fucking silver bricks?”

“Yeah. Bought one for my youngest in what? The 90s? I thought since we couldn’t take photos of us on our cell phones because you know, too risky for leakages, that you could take some on this. So, we had some kind of keepsake. But you need to take care of them and not lose them, and not leave them somewhere stupid, or it defeats the whole purpose. Put them in a safe or something… There’s film in there too,” she explains as she pumps the back of the seat up, rolling the seat forward to reach the pedals.

“Gerri…,” he breathes, looking down at it. “This is really fucking sweet,” he giggles, looking up at her.

“Yeah, well, the Ice Queen’s heart has been known to thaw once in a while,” she smirks as she moves her sunglasses off her head onto her face, pulling on her seatbelt. “Put on your seatbelt.”

He reaches for it instantly, trying to balance the gift on his lap as she pulls out, signalling to swerve on the main street as she follows the GPS.

“So, are you going to tell me what the other gift was?” He asks, already breaking open the box and pulling the camera out, not shocked that she’s already had the batteries inserted, trying to read the instructions to find out how to put the film in.

“Isn’t this enough for now?” She asks, taking her eyes off the road for a moment.

“Yeah, but I’m an impatient fuck and want to know,” he smiles up at her for a minute, putting the film out its package.

“You sure you don’t want to keep it a surprise?” She asks as a last chance.

“Absolutely fucking not,” he groans, jamming the film into the camera.

“Okay,” she sighs. “It’s one of those game consoles that just came out. The BS5 or whatever it’s called,” she waves off.

“The PS5?!” He asks excitedly.

“Yeah. You kept saying about how you were fucked off with your old one when you put on Netflix but how you were waiting for the newest one to come out. I got put on some waiting list and got it delivered. I got a few recommended games as well because I know you like to do all that,” she twists her wrist in the air towards him. “There’s also a gaming voucher so you can buy whatever game you want. It’s at my apartment,” she shrugs. “Should we stop for a coffee?” She asks noting the Starbucks across the way in the distance.

“Gerri,” he breathes, looking over at her. “You’re the best fucking girlfriend,” he tells her genuinely as she pulls into the drive thru Starbucks. “You know that?”

“Yeah, I’m sure I am,” she stops waiting in the queue. “What do you want?”

“No really, Gerri. No one ever fucking listens to me and buys me shit I want. It’s really…,” he sighs deeply. “And the camera,” he shrugs looking down at it, looking back up to her sweet smile.

“I know,” she reaches across, touching his face, before he leans over, the whirring of his seatbelt filling the car as he kisses her soundly, grasping his hand behind her head to pull her in harder as she responds, laughing a little when he peppers kisses over her face.

“Okay!” She protests, “enough, enough. What do you want?”

“Just a Latte is fine,” he determines, sitting back in his seat, picking up his camera as she rolls the car forward a space closer in the queue, distracted by the menu she’s squinting to read.

“Gerri,” he shouts when the car halts again, lifting up his camera so he can peep through the hole. “Smile!” He shouts as she tilts her head forward, an instant smile for him as the flash goes off.

“Stunning,” he smiles, waiting for the humming of the picture as it comes out, shaking it in the air.

****

They are only ten minutes into the journey, already having taken a selfie photo of them in the queue, her scolding him not to waste the film too quickly. Their drinks half gone as he stares out the window, bored.

“So, where are we going?” He asks.

“Can’t you just let it be a surprise?” She laughs incredulously.

“Bleugh,” is all he gives as a response. “Can you tell me how far away we are?”

“35 minutes,” she offers after reading the GPS.

He groans even louder this time.

“I’m bored. Let’s play a game,” he groans, leaning back against the headrest looking over to her.

“What kind of game?”

“Uhm… not twenty-one questions. It’s shit.”

“Eye spy?”

“What am I, seven?”

“You act like it,” she offers with a lilt and a smug smile as he gives a fake mocking laugh back.

“What about two truths and a lie _?_ ”

“Okay,” she murmurs sceptically.

“So, I say three statements like I’m a Sagittarius, uhm… Gerri bought me a PS5, and I think Wambsgans is really really smart. Which one is a lie?”

“Number three,” she drones, keeping her concentration on the road.

“Exactly. Okay, I’ll go for real this time. Uhm… I once ate a whole onion raw, I once slept overnight in a railway station, and I went vegan for a month,” he reveals with a pout, looking at her expectantly.

“Uhm… you ate an onion raw?”

“Nope.”

“Why the hell would you eat an onion raw?”

“It was a dare and I was kind of curious anyway after watching _The Grinch_ ,” he laughs as she rolls her eyes, shaking her head with a chuckle.

“So, which was a lie?”

“Vegan. Like fuck would I go vegan. Weirdos. Okay, now you,” he turns onto his hip looking at her.

“Ehm… I was valedictorian in my high school. I… uh… I won a beer chug against Frank, and I had a dog called Sally.”

“Mmm… you were definitely valedictorian. A dog called Sally? In a hick town, I can buy that. You drinking beer though. Hmm… I’m going to go for beer chug. You hesitated too long.”

“Nu-uh. I wasn’t valedictorian.”

“What?! How the fuck were you not valedictorian. You 100% are the kind of bitch who wins everything.”

“No. Howard James was valedictorian. His dad was very wealthy in our town. He got it over me. It was a different time,” she shrugs.

“Assholes. So, you won a beer chugging competition against Frank? You better replay that tonight,” he laughs.

“Mmm, don’t know about that.”

“My turn. Okay… ehm… I once stayed the night at Stevie Nicks’ house in LA, I did theatre one time in high school, and I know how to juggle.”

“Fuck. That’s hard. I think you would have told me about Stevie Nicks by now and surely military school doesn’t do theatre. But you juggling? I can’t see you having the concentration.”

“Just pick one.”

“Okay. Military school?”

“Correct.”

“So, you met Stevie fucking Nicks and didn’t tell me. Did you fuck her?” She asks shocked with a laugh.

“Nooo… I wouldn’t fuck my Stevie. Met her at some rich dude’s birthday party in LA when I was out there. She’s a really nice lady. She took me under her wing at the party after I cracked a few jokes. I must have this affinity with older women because they just want to take care of me,” he pauses, taking in her head shake and smirk. “We talked for ages and a bunch of people went back to her house. I sat at her piano with her and she sang me _Landslide_. That’s my favourite. Then she told me all these stories and showed me this big fucking chest of songs that she wrote but never recorded. It was pretty cool.”

“It sounds it. And you can juggle?” She asks him sceptically.

“Yeah. Was really bored in the dorm at military school and it passed some time. Kept me out of trouble.”

She hums, raising her eyebrows, knowing full well he had got into plenty of trouble.

“Okay go,” he directs, bringing his foot up to rest on his opposite knee.

“Let’s see. I was on my college tennis team, I think Marilyn Monroe is overrated, and I’ve never seen It’s a Wonderful Life.”

“Ohhh… well you’re definitely lying about the tennis team with the way you acted with Frank and Karl in volleyball.”

“No, actually. I wasn’t.”

“Fuck.”

“I learned how to play when I met Baird. I didn’t have time to play when I was in college.”

“Let me guess, you were part of some fucking debate team.”

“Yup,” she smiles.

“So, let’s go through this. What’s your issue with Marilyn Monroe?” He laughs.

“I think she’s a bit of a martyr. Like she’s so romanticised to all these young girls but she was kind of pathetic. Used to get drunk and sleep around with men and pose nude and yeah. She riles me.”

“I think she struggled with mental health to be fair,” he laughs watching her.

“I get that and I’m not denying she was gorgeous. But there are so many other women out there who would be better icons and examples to young girls, that’s all. I’ve seen far too many young girls see her behaviour and act like martyrs to emulate her, instead of trying to be strong, independent women, and better themselves. They end up drinking and getting themselves in trouble because they resonate with her and I don’t like that. It’s a bad example.”

He starts chuckling, watching how peeved she’s becoming. 

“What?” She asks giggling a little herself.

“You’re such a mom,” he laughs.

“Well I am a mom… so…,” she shrugs.

“Okay, what about It’s a Wonderful Life. How have you not seen that?”

“I don’t know. Never got around to it.”

“Do you even like Christmas movies?”

“Ehm… I haven’t thought about it. I’ve seen Miracle on 34th Street? The original one. Though the girls liked the 90s one, with Richard Attenborough.”

“That’s it? You’ve never seen Home Alone 1 and 2?”

“No. The girls did but I’ve never had the pleasure.”

“No fucking way. That’s like my favourite of all time. The second one. Lost in New York. It came out when I was a kid and I was so fucking excited that we got to go there to visit dad. I got the au pair to take me to all the places. Every Christmas Eve I go to the Plaza and have the full experience. Eat ice cream and shit and watch the movie. It’s fucking great. I didn’t get to go last year because I was at my mom’s.”

“Are you going to the Plaza this year? What’s your plans for Christmas?”

“Yeah. I’m going. Shiv’s been pushing to go to dad’s on Christmas day. I think she’s afraid that it’s his last, in case he goes to the big house,” he shrugs.

“Oh yeah. I didn’t think of that.”

“What about you? You seeing your kids?”

“Yeah. Maddie and her husband, Ryan live in West Roxbury near Boston. They both work in the city. Lawyers. Don’t know why she followed in our footsteps considering everything. She went into criminal law though,” she says with some pride. “And Charlotte is coming in from Chicago with her boyfriend, Kevin for Christmas. Thankfully, I’ll be staying in a hotel whilst they get the spare room. I don’t think all of us under the same roof would last,” she determines as they pull up to a large entrance way, stopping to speak to a guy in a booth.

**He’s a little bit sad that he won’t be able to see her at Christmas. Had expected really but knowing it was a reality now was kind of shit. He supposed he could video call her or something, but he wished he could have been with her, that things were different.**

She pulls her phone off the holder, scrolling through shit to show something on her phone to the guy to get through.

“A park?” He asks once they start driving away.

“A national park,” she affirms.

“Why a park?”

“Stop asking questions. Okay, back to the game. Your turn.”

“Okay. Ehh… I’ve masturbated in my office in work, I’ve never dyed my hair, and I’ve written a screenplay.”

“Roman. Tell me you’ve not masturbated in the office,” she looks to him pleadingly, trying to keep an eye on the road.

“You’ll have to guess,” he smirks.

“I’m going to go for masturbated in work is a lie with complete wishful thinking.”

“Wrong!” He laughs.

“God fucking god,” she closes her eyes momentarily, before shaking her head as she concentrates back on the road.

“Sometimes you just have to get it out so you can concentrate,” he shrugs.

“Since I became CEO?”

“Nah, I don’t think so. You’ve never cracked one out? Just to release the tension.”

“I can’t say I have, no.”

“You should. Let me know when. We can do it in synchronisation,” he flirts as she grins.

“Okay, so you’ve dyed your hair?”

“Yeah. Blue when I was 15,” he laughs. “Mom went crazy and took me to a hairdresser the next day.”

“And a screenplay?”

“Yeah. It was stupid. I don’t even want to talk about it. Now you,” he says quickly as her eyes narrow sceptically.

“Well… I’ve taken flying lessons, I can play the violin, and I once made out with Barry Gibb,” she smiles, looking around at him.

“Barry Gibb? Hmm… I think that’s true and I want to know more. I think flying lessons is the lie.”

“Nope. Did it on one of your dad’s corporate retreats. I wasn’t horrible at it. But no, I can’t play violin. I did a little piano though.”

“So, what happened with Barry Gibb?”

“I was young. Just arrived in New York. Was at Studio 54. Made out with him one night and that was the extent of it. He got dragged away and I went home,” she laughs.

“Killer story,” he laughs.

They continue their game for the remainder of the drive. Roman revealing an array of fucked up situations that he had been in over the years, including nearly being eaten by a shark, clogging a toilet in Downing Street, and streaking through Tokyo with a pig mask on. Gerri being a little tamer revealing only that she once bared her chest to a trucker when she was 18 when she was drunk with her friends and having shoplifted a nail polish when she was 14. However, when the game had turned more sordid, he had revealed an array of sexual antics including bondage, jerking off on his dad’s private jet toilet on the way to Argestes, and had been pegged by a girl. She hadn’t had a lot to reveal, her and Baird hardly being imaginative in bed, though she revealed that she would never do anal when he thought she had, though she would consider handcuffs.

When they finally pull up to the carpark after a huge assent, he looks around confused.

“Is this it? Where are we?” He asks confused, looking out the window.

“Okay,” she sighs, turning around to look at him when she turns the engine off. “It’s not all that exciting but when I looked online people said it was one of those once in a lifetime things. I thought about how you might just want to spend a little time together and I thought a walk on the beach at sunset or something was a bit bleugh, not to mention how easily we could be spotted. But I looked it up and everyone said that if you drove far up enough at Haleakala National Park to its peak then it was a beautiful sunrise and sunset. Sunset was quieter though. But we’re basically on a volcano and I thought you would think that was cool,” she shrugs. “Mainly though, it was about us getting a little time together.”

“That’s exactly what I want to do. Spend time with you,” he smiles, leaning over to give her a quick kiss. “And you’re right. The volcano is cool.”

“It might be shit but it’s supposed to be beautiful,” she tells him as he goes to open the car door.

“Holy fucking shit,” he shouts when he opens the door, closing it again quickly and looking back at her. “It’s fucking freezing.”

“Yeah,” she laughs. “I read about that. Got you more things. They’re in the trunk.”

She gets out, wincing at the temperature as she opens the trunk, him following her lead, jumping on the spot to attempt heating up.

She grasps a large box, pushing it towards him.

“Here, this is yours,” she directs as she pulls a bag towards her, pulling out a large blue puffy jacket that she puts on immediately.

“Moncler? Fuck Gerri. This is too much,” he says quietly, opening the box to reveal a black jacket.

“It’ll keep you warm,” she assures, zipping up her jacket, as he takes it out, putting it on, it fitting perfectly, instantly warming him up.

“It looks good,” she smiles, pulling his collar up as he mirrors the small smile that’s appeared on her lips.

“Thank you,” he tells her softly, as he moves to zip up.

“Also, these,” she says reaching into the bag to pull out a pair of gloves for him.

“You’ve thought of fucking everything,” he laughs as he pulls them on.

“Did you expect anything else?” She asks as he watches her pull on a pair of her own, finally pulling on the cream beanie he had gifted her in London.

“I fucking love you in that beanie,” he slides towards her as she fixes it, her eyes crinkling as she laughs at his flirtation.

“It’s a perfect addition I never knew I would need,” she offers as he moves closer into her space.

“And I fucking love that you did all this for me,” he says putting his arms around her waist, kissing her lovingly, his tongue slipping into her mouth as she sighs lightly, responding briefly before pulling back and looking around embarrassed.

“Come on,” she whispers. “We’ll miss it if we don’t get a move on.”

He lets her go, grasping his backpack and moving around to the passenger seat to grab his camera as she closes the trunk.

“You need anything from this purse? You can put it in my backpack?”

“Uhm, no. I just need my phone and the keys. Can put them in my pocket,” she reasons as he closes the door.

They walk up the peak, holding hands, looking over the spectacular views as they stand against a railing, watching as the sun begins to go down over the mountains.

“Over here,” she directs as they walk out down onto the rocks. “I watched this video on YouTube. They said you can go down this bit where you can basically sit on rocks and watch it from there.”

After they walk for a few minutes she finds the spot, perching on the edge.

“Wait, let me get a picture of this before it gets darker,” he reasons, getting the camera out of his backpack.

“Uhm… okay,” she waits patiently until he brings the camera out, waiting for her to pose with a sweet smile.

“Do you want one of you?” She offers.

“Nah,” he shouts as he jumps up onto the huge boulder she’s sitting on, plonks down behind her with his legs on either side of her, encouraging her to sit back against his chest as he sits the picture he’s been shaking on the rock next to him.

“Can we get a picture of us? Together?” He asks reticently with his chin resting on her shoulder.

“Sure,” she agrees softly, turning her head towards him and kissing his cheek. He smiles, holding the camera up, nearly dropping it as she tries to catch it, his hand catching it before it does. He finally takes the photo, hoping it actually captured them both, looking at the faded picture when it comes out, seeing from the outline that they did both make it into the frame, it sitting down with its sister.

“One more. We weren’t in it,” he lies as he holds the camera up again, turning his face at the last minute to kiss her cheek, her grin widening as he takes the picture.

“You little snake,” she laughs as he takes the picture out, shaking it.

“First one was nice too,” he divulges with a laugh, settling his camera down and looking out into the sunset now as he wraps around her.

“Gosh, it’s really beautiful, isn’t it?” She comments, watching as the sun hits every peak before them, the shadows following dutifully behind each peak; creating a wondrous image she’s only seen depicted in paintings in museums. She had seen the pictures online, but they really hadn’t done this justice. Then there are the clouds below them; the sun hitting off each one exquisitely, a view she has only seen from an airplane window. The different colours that appear before her, ever changing as the sun begins to set lower is one she would never forget. It really was something.

“I’ve never been above clouds before. It’s fucking crazy,” he notes incredulously as he watches the orange sky before him, the light from it illuminating Gerri’s face when he looks around to her, burying his lips against her jaw, pulling her in hard.

She giggles a little, tightening her arms around his in front of her, looks back up at the clouds.

“This is the best birthday I’ve ever had,” he tells her softly, placing small kisses on her jaw. “I don’t think it’ll ever be topped. I’m so fucking lucky I have you.”

“Was this worth it then?” She laughs. “It’s not boring?”

“No, it’s beautiful and I get to be with you. I don’t think anything will ever come close to this moment ever again,” he whispers.

“Or this is just the beginning of many moments,” she reasons softly, turning her head towards him, initiating a languid kiss which he deepens passionately.

He pulls away eventually, pressing his forehead against hers.

“I want to be with you for the rest of my life, Gerri,” he whispers with his eyes closed, too afraid of her reaction.

_Her stomach drops at that. Afraid at where he’s going to go with this. She hopes he doesn’t ask her what she had assumed he asked her in jest in Dundee. She doesn’t want to have to let him down on his birthday. It wasn’t that she was completely fucking against it. It’s that it was too soon. They were too much in their infancy. They couldn’t make that commitment. Not now. She didn’t even know if he would eventually grow tired of this._

She sighs, smiling gently.

“You mean so much to me, Rome. In every way,” she whispers, pecking his lips lightly. 

He opens his eyes, puffing, pecking her back before he looks back out to the beautiful view, his grip around her tightening, she noting his fallen face.

 **He should have known she wouldn’t say it back. That she didn’t want to be with him for the rest of her life. He’s just lucky to have her now. To be with her now.**

“I mean it, honey. I do love you,” she whispers, pressing her forehead to his temple as he gives a quirk of his lips, it vanishing immediately.

“Roman,” she orders. “Look at me, honey,” she moves his jaw towards her. “This right here. You. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, and I didn’t even know it. I want you to know that,” she offers a small smile.

“No, Gerri. It’s all _I’ve_ ever wanted,” he tells her softly. “Someone to really fucking give a shit about me. So much that they would take the time to do this really nice shit for me. This really thoughtful shit,” he sighs. “But I get why you don’t want to spend the rest of your life with me. I’m just glad we’re here,” he smiles sadly again, looking out to the view.

“Roman,” she sighs frustrated. “Don’t be like this. Things aren’t that black and white.”

He shrugs his shoulders, his chin resting on her shoulder again, looking completely like a child.

_She doesn’t know what to say. Doesn’t know whether to entertain this. She doesn’t want him to be like this on his birthday though. They had such a great day and there was more to come. She doesn’t want it ruining everything, but she doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to take the reality. But the only way out from this seems to be through._

“Look, I can’t see any further ahead than this shit with your dad. It’s not that I absolutely don’t want to spend the rest of my life with you,” she tells him as he looks back at her hopefully. “It’s just not something we can figure out just now. One step at a time. We haven’t even got to tell anyone about this. You haven’t even been to my apartment and now what? You want us to promise the rest of our lives to each other right now? It’s not realistic.”

“I meant what I suggested in Dundee,” he tells her resolutely.

_So, he had meant it._

“I know, honey. And it was very sweet,” she smiles kindly. “I’ve never even thought about ever marrying again. The first one was so…,” she sighs, “I can’t even describe it.”

“I’m not Baird,” he tells her angrily.

“I know that,” she strokes his cheek in an attempt to calm him. “I’m not saying that. I’m saying that the idea of it would take some getting used to. I’ve enjoyed having my independence back. Enjoyed being able to make my own choices and not being told what to do.”

“Gerri, you know I wouldn’t tell you what to do. You tell me what to do,” he whines.

“I know, Rome. I know. But I’ve also been gradually finding the person that I used to be before I got married and honestly, you’ve helped so much with that and I want it to continue,” she tells him hopefully. “But Roman, this has been such a whirlwind and you’ve said yourself you’re not used to relationships.”

“It’s been going on for almost a year, Gerri. It’s not that new. And I might not be used to relationships, but I know this is fucking different. I know that I love you,” he tells her angrily, as she tries to stroke his face to placate him.

“And I love you. And we may have had feelings for a while, but the actual relationship is still in its infancy. We’ve been so restricted by this shit with Waystar and your dad. It’s not been a normal situation for us as much as we’ve tried to bring normalcy to it. I’m a little old fashioned. I’m much more linear. Spend time together. Make sure that I don’t annoy the hell out of you and vice versa the more we’re in each other’s company,” she laughs. “Eventually, make sure we’d be able to cope with living together. That the stressors don’t get the better of us before we make a commitment like marriage.”

“You think we’re going to end up hating each other?” He asks confused.

“No. I think that time will tell whether you’ll get sick of me or whether we’re absolutely matched. I think the latter is the likelihood before you start reading into anything. But things need to progress naturally, not just throw a ring on it and hope it’ll be okay. Do you understand?”

He nods gently, thinking hard.

“So, you’re not saying no? Never?” He ventures a little afraid.

“No. I’m not saying never. I’m saying that we will talk about it when the time’s right and things progress in a more natural setting.”

“I don’t understand. When would the time be right?”

“Maybe when we can be together freely when everyone knows and determine it from there. Or maybe when you don’t think I’m going to leave you, and I don’t think you’re going to get bored of me? When we’re solid,” she laughs, trying to lighten the mood, though there is a lot of truth in her words.

“I’m never going to get bored of you, Gerri,” he tells her resolutely, looking deep into her eyes.

“I hope not. But more time’s going to bring that confidence. That’s just the doubts that are there when a relationship’s new. But if it keeps going as well as it has been, I think we’re in for a pretty fucking adventurous, beautiful life together,” she smiles. 

“So, you’re not saying no? Just not now? Just to be sure?” He asks again for clarification, his eyes narrowing.

“Yes, that’s what I’m fucking saying,” she laughs, kissing him quickly. “God, you’re annoying,” she laughs through a sigh, looking back to the sunset.

“Enough to kick me to the curb?” He jests.

“Yeah,” she answers flatly, looking back at him. “This is all a ploy to actually bring you up to this beautiful sunset in Hawaii so I can break up with you, you fucking idiot,” she tells him sarcastically, laughing and shaking her head as she looking back at the sunset.

He smiles, returning his chin back to her shoulder, tightening his grip around her as she pulls her hand up to curl around to the back of his neck, scraping her fingers through his scalp, whilst they silently watch the rest of the sunset.

****

He had taken the liberty of driving back this time, opting to put on her Motown playlist instead of playing a game. Her hand in his as he listened to her light humming and murmured absent-minded singing along had been better than any game.

**The conversation they had had was still swirling around in his mind. He was trying to remember the tools his therapist had taught him. Knowing his boundaries, understanding other people’s boundaries. Accepting her words as her own truth, rather than seeing it as a rejection. This was the slowest moving relationship he had ever been involved with. He had always had girls at his whim, them more or less moving in immediately. But he remembered how his therapist had shown him how unhealthy that could be. How he would begin to get quickly irritated with their presence. How he never had any time to himself, how he couldn’t even brush his teeth without having someone hovering. Tabitha had been the only one that hadn’t been so bad. She had moved in pretty quickly, but she never crowded him, never asked him 100 questions. It was the closest he had come to being content.**

**This however, with Gerri it felt different. He was the one who was chasing, when he was usually the one being chased. He had become the girls he had grown resentful of. That was the last thing he wanted; Gerri to become resentful of his presence. He wants to stay with Gerri, wants to please her, wants her to love him forever. If that meant moving at her pace, he would need to try.**

**And she had said she wasn’t saying no to ever making a commitment. She seemed, like, willing to do it eventually? She was the expert in relationships here. He was the novice. She hadn’t steered him wrong yet. It was a lot to blindly trust someone though, but he did trust Gerri. If he could just convince his stupid stomach of that, his stupid brain that it wasn’t a warning shot that she was going to leave, that this wasn’t temporary for her, that would be great.**

They had gone directly to the restaurant. She had messaged Karolina when they were leaving, telling her to start the story about how the car had broken down, how they would be late to the restaurant but would be as quick as possible.

Their performance when they had entered had been Oscar worthy, her exasperation perfect, his anger and expletives exactly what everyone would have expected. He had allowed her to take the lead on the story, her wish to complain to the company about giving them a faulty vehicle the most Gerri icing on the cake.

The dinner had been beautiful, no entertainment in sight this time. Just a birthday cheers for Roman as they had become progressively more inebriated. Their calls to go back to the villa to chill out had been insistent; this restaurant too boring for a Saturday night.

Gerri had held him back when they had arrived back citing the bags as her excuse, as everyone else had poured into the villa, already discussing what they wanted to do when they got in there.

“You think they bought it?” She whispers, taking her few bags, jamming the box with his coat into one of them, and passing it to him.

“Yeah,” he nods. “I think they’re afraid for the car company and how much shit you’re going to give them,” he laughs.

“Well, that was the point,” she shrugs, as she begins to follow him into the house.

However, he jumps when he’s met with an array of cheers, pops, streamers covering him, kazoo noises when he opens the door, her grin wide as she takes in his shocked reaction.

The room is covered in different coloured banners, streamers, kazoo noises, a huge cardboard cut-out of him, a blow-up sex doll **(what the fuck was that about?)** , and music blaring. They’re all standing with Hawaiian lei’s on as they scream Happy Birthday out of sync from one another, Tom’s kazoo going on a little too long as it becomes a little irritating, Karolina punching his arm to make him stop.

“Holy shit,” he sighs with wide eyes, as Gerri grazes his back with her hand to encourage him in.

“Happy Birthday,” she smiles as Joan approaches them both, placing a lei over each of their heads; Joan gifting Roman with a kiss on the cheek before she steps back.

“I can’t believe this. When did you fucking do this?” He asks, still stumped, still clinging onto the bags.

“When you were out with Gerri,” Karolina offers. “She was supposed to keep you out until dinner,” she laughs.

“Thank fuck the car broke down or I would have had to become more imaginative,” Gerri laughs as she moves to take the bags from his hand, as he looks up to her, his eyes slightly watery.

“The doll was all Tom,” Dana rolls her eyes with a smirk.

“I thought you’d like it,” he shrugs with a laugh.

“This is just… uhm…,” he waffles, looking around to everyone, up to the banners, his emotion becoming a little overwhelming.

“Come on,” Frank clasps him on the back. “Let’s get you a drink,” he smiles as Roman follows him, Gerri watching before running upstairs to put the packages in her room.

**It was one of the best nights of his life.**

They had taken shots and downed drinks first, before they entertained a bunch of party games that had been planned.

The first had been some party game where they had been split into their teams from earlier, Cyd remaining the judge again. Two tables had been set up with five tumblers on each table of at least three shots of tequila in each glass, each table holding limes and salt also. The name of the game was for each team to sprint to the table, take the salt, down a glass full, bite the lime and turn around in a circle three times before returning back to their team mate to tag them in. The first team to complete the challenge winning the whole thing.

It had been quite a picture, Roman downing the tequila easily and spinning in a circle easily on his socks before stumbling back to tag in Gerri, as Frank had grimaced a little, spinning and hitting the table a little, jerking the tumblers before they were saved by Cyd, fumbling back in a zig zag to tag in Tom.

Gerri had moved surprisingly swiftly, taking this just as serious as every other challenge. She had winced at the taste, determined to complete it in one go before she kept the lime in her mouth whilst she had spun around with her eyes closed, Tom following closely behind as he had simply gasped and whooped after downing the drink before spinning around. The teams had got louder, screaming and cheering on each person as they continued, clapping loudly as the music blared over them.

They had both stumbled back to tag in Ray and Larry, both of which took the shot easily, spinning slowly as though they were toddlers, Larry almost falling over. Loud laughter filled the room, as Roman took out his phone and started videoing them trying to run back, Larry continuously missing Karolina’s hand each time he tried to hit it, Dana already whizzing away before he finally hit Karolina’s palm.

Dana had taken the tequila like a champ, spinning around as quick as she could, whilst Karolina had stuck her tongue out half way through, her eyes tight closed as she forced the rest of it down, putting the lime in her mouth as she whizzed in a circle, her hair bouncing as she almost ran on the spot. Dana had struggled to walk back, having spun in a circle too fast much to the hilarity of everyone watching her, as Karolina had made a more direct though stumbling to the floor a few times run to tag out Joan.

Hugo was finally tagged creating a race to their shots, Joan screaming the whole way. Hugo had taken the shot easily, though the furrowing of his eyebrows wasn’t missed, whilst Joan had shaken her hand as she tried to down it, faltering half-way through and eventually downing the rest of it. Both of them had spun in a circle slowly, Joan one spin behind Hugo as Hugo slowly had tried to walk back; stumbling the whole way, as Roman reached out his hand to be tagged with a desperate expression. Joan had tried a different tactic, taking a full run towards Frank like a bull to a matador’s cape, more or less forcing him to have to catch her in his arms, winning them the game, everyone giving her a cheer. Cyd declared them the winners as she had quietly nursed the end of her triple tequila as though it were a glass of water.

They had all fallen onto the couches exhausted, opting for a tamer game next as the music continued. Opting for charades in their original teams.

Ray had perfectly acted out _Airplane_ , winning an easy point, as Tom had hilariously given a beautiful impression of _The_ _Walking Dead_. Dana giving a brilliant rendition of _Cool Runnings_ , as Frank had fucked it by trying to act out _A Winter’s Tale_ which no one could guess in time. Roman had gone ahead with a good old back pocket charades classic by picking the _Macarena_ , it being guessed in record time, whilst Joan had brought them a point with _Baywatch_ , hilariously running across the room like Pamela Anderson. Hugo’s acting of _Pretty Woman_ had put them ahead, as Karolina’s example of _Jaws_ had earned a raid equalizer.

Gerri had brought their teams final point with an acting of _Romeo and Juliet_ , persistently pointing to Roman as the alcohol had taken over her, jumping up on the sofa next to him, pretending to be Juliet on the balcony, Frank shaking his head as though absolutely appalled that such a classic could be performed so unceremoniously. Though Roman’s team had been declared the winners by Cyd, though fuck knows if anyone was keeping score anymore, Larry was given his chance to perform, giving a cunning example of _Walk the Line_ , earning an overall round of applause.

Next up had been Karaoke, a personal request from Roman as more drinks had been filled, more shots had been downed.

He had kicked it off with his duet with Dana, as promised, singing the _Grease Melody_ ; Roman jumping up onto the couch pretending he was fucking John Travolta during _Grease Lightening_ , earning him a shaking of Gerri’s head as she watched him. Ray had been up next with _Don’t Stop Believin’_ , a popular one as everyone sang along.

Roman had been able to catch Gerri alone in the kitchen for a moment as they filled their drinks during Ray’s performance, watching him over the huge island as everyone had cheered him eagerly.

“Were you surprised then?” She slurs a little, swirling her finger in the glass and pulling it up to her mouth to suck the liquid off.

“Fuck yeah. How the fuck did you plan this?” He asks, pressing his arm a little too closely into hers as he pours himself a scotch.

“Karolina,” she whispers, gesturing towards her as they watch her singing loudly, laughing as she goes. “We both planned it. Got all the stuff. Then we decided she was going to set it all up at some point, and I was going to distract you and then I told her that I had something planned and wanted her to cover for me. You couldn’t come back here to change anyway, so it all worked out.” She smiles looking up at the various decorations.

“You’re a fucking double agent, aren’t you?” He accuses her. “They all knew you were supposed to keep me out.”

“Well, I was supposed to keep you occupied. Why not up a mountain with a beautiful sunset? They did think we had a breakdown though. I don’t know what they would have thought I was going to do with you had we not had the breakdown. But it looks good doesn’t it?”

“Amazing,” he smiles, never taking his eyes of her, slinking his hand down to hers, hidden from everyone’s view behind the counter, as he squeezes it, grinning at her whilst she offers a wry smile, pulling away quickly, picking up her martini.

“Later,” she promises in a quiet husky voice as she walks back over to the couches.

She watches as Ray finishes the song, Tom up next singing _I’m too Sexy_ , not a fucking surprise as he prances around in a circle, pretending to catwalk through the house as everyone laughs when he unbuttons his shirt, acting like a complete fucking ham. Karolina is up next, butchering _I Wanna Dance with Somebody_ , as she more or less half laughs, half screams it into the microphone, though it mattering very little as everyone more or less drowns her out as they scream along with her.

He can’t help watching Gerri as she stands behind the couch, laughing, swaying on the spot, singing along to the music as the alcohol loosens her up more and more.

Larry takes the next song, opting for _Sweet Caroline_ , as he actually reveals quite a good singing voice. The best yet, to be honest. Everyone cavorting along, Roman pulling Joan into a dance as they sway along to his singing, whilst Frank encourages Dana into a waltz.

The most surprising song choice of the night problem probably comes from Hugo who screams _Livin’ on a Prayer_ into the microphone, pretty fucking out of tune. However, his heart is completely in it, Roman exchanging glances with a Karolina, Gerri, Cyd, and Dana respectively as he tries to hold in his laughter, though completely fucking impressed. Ray and Tom, however, excitedly join in, whilst Joan screams a memory into Larry’s ear.

They try to pressure Gerri into singing, though she quickly declines, waving them away, Roman taking the microphone instead, giving a perfect rendition of _Dancing Queen_ as he provides the moves alongside it, Joan twirling around in circles before him as Dana joins her excitedly. Dana, however, turns out to be the most surprising singer of the night, belting out a perfect performance of _I Will Survive_ , hitting every single note perfectly, the funky beat encouraging everyone up to dance, singing along. Roman even gets Cyd and Gerri to dance, well, sway from side to side as they sing along. Joan then ends up revealing a fully drunken performance of _In the Mood for Dancing_ after Dana, keeping everyone up dancing, Roman even able to steal closer to Gerri to dance as she sways from side to side, her head lolling back with her eyes closed as the alcohol continues to hit her.

“Not so bad is it,” he whispers into her ear, as she grins, opening her eyes up to look back down to him, following his gaze onto all the other people not paying any attention to how she has loosened up.

The attention then turns to Cyd, Frank, and Gerri, the only three who are yet to take a turn.

“Come on! It’s my birthday!” Roman whines, with a petted lip, looking at them all.

Frank and Gerri protest, taking a seat on the couch together next to Cyd, as though their proximity would protect them from having to do so. However, much to everyone’s surprise, Cyd downs the rest of her drink, pushing aside the karaoke book, and steps up to the microphone to gruff a rendition of _Ring of Fire_ to her willing audience. They can’t help but laugh as she leans against the couch arm as though over the whole thing, as though the lyrics was actually her giving them a fucking dress down/pep talk in her office, almost a spoken word rendition of the song as everyone sings along with her, receiving a loud applause at the end for her efforts as she welcomes their cheers.

“Good sport, Cyd,” Roman shouts clapping, pushing forward to hug her.

“Only because it’s your birthday!” She shouts, pointing her finger at Roman. “And we will never speak of this again!” She points her finger threateningly to the rest of the room, who all hold their hands up laughing, moving their attention to refill their drinks.

“Come on,” Roman whines as he plonks the book between Gerri and Frank. “One song. A duet if it makes you feel better. For my birthday! We’ll all sing along with you! Just think about it,” he pleads as he steps up to the microphone, giving an out of tune shouting attempt of _I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)_ , noting how Gerri and Frank had picked up the book and started to sift through it. He watches as her brow furrowed, a negotiation being performed on the couch, whilst everyone plays their part singing the second DaDa Da Da’s when they come along.

Finally, when the song is finished, he approaches them with an expectant smile, his arms held out expectantly.

“Well,” he asks.

“Frank’s picked his song,” she smiles up at him resolutely.

“What the fuck? You said you would go first,” Frank looks at her incredulously, completely betrayed.

“I’m still looking,” she hums casually, turning a page in the book over her crossed legs.

“You better be fucking thankful,” Frank moans as he moves up off the couch to take the mic as a rendition of _Brown Eyed Girl_ starts playing. Joan pulls Tom into a dance, hoping to take away a little distraction from Frank’s not so perfect singing voice, as Roman plonks down next to Gerri.

“So, what you thinking?” He grins.

“I don’t know,” she mumbles, turning the page over.

“Would you feel better if it was a duet? I’ll come up with you. Even sing shittier than you,” he offers.

“I can sing a song by myself,” she comments back nonchalantly. “I just need to find the right one.”

“Well, the offers there. Just a tip, though,” he leans in closer to whisper in her ear. “The more you perform the fuck out of it, the less embarrassing it will be,” he quirks his eyebrows when he pulls back before jumping up and singing along, pulling Cyd into a dance as he sways along with her.

_It amazes her how he’s talked her into this. It amazes her how he had talked anyone into this. If she were to put a bet on before she got here that Frank and Cyd would get up to sing karaoke, she would have lost a fortune. But that was Roman. He didn’t realise how much his charm pulled people into do the bizarre things they wouldn’t normally. He didn’t realise how enthusiastic people were to show him a good time and give back to him when they had told everyone that this was being planned. He didn’t realise how many people really did care about him. She wouldn’t deny that she really doesn’t want to do this. It’s so out of her comfort zone, but she doesn’t want to be the only one who doesn’t when everyone else had been a good sport. She wanted to be the CEO who set an example, who could loosen up when necessary. And ultimately, she wanted to do it for Roman._

Finally, Frank’s performance finishes, a round of applause gifted to him as he holds his arms up wide.

“Never again,” he declares, as Roman approaches him with a smile, pulling him into a hug, giving Frank a big kiss on the cheek.

“Gerri, Gerri, Gerri,” Tom starts chanting as all eyes go to her, Ray joining in with him as Dana starts clapping, “come on, Gerri! You’ve got this!”

“Well, Mrs CEO?” Roman asks lightly, holding his hand out to her as she looks up to him as though she could murder him.

“Only because it’s your birthday you little shit,” Gerri groans, putting her hand in his.

“Yes! Fucking Gerriiiiii!” He shouts as he pulls her up everyone whooping as she passes.

“You better be fucking thankful,” Gerri moans as she moves up to take the mic, pulling her top down at its hem nervously, inserting the number into the system as she takes a deep breath, thankful for the alcohol giving her a bit more confidence.

_The more you perform the fuck out of it, the less embarrassing it will be; she tries to repeat his words in her head. She had to channel Roman. This is why he was so liked. Ham it up. No one gives a fuck anyway. Fuck it._

As the electric guitar solo of _One Way or Another_ starts up, she stands tall and starts bobbing on the spot to psych herself up, facing everyone, as they start jumping on the spot, whooping for her as she suddenly changes demeanour, starts moving from side to side, singing, making her voice as gruff as possible as she sings it by heart, her voice not that fucking bad.

Everyone starts whooping, their jaws hitting the floor, their energy more rambunctious as they all stand up, whilst Roman jumps up on the couch to watch her better as she strides across the room from side to side, her expression angry as fuck, fiercely delivering the song, looking like a bad assed fucking killer bitch. **His bad assed fucking killer bitch. Slime puppy slating Gerri.**

He can’t hide the grin on his face, taking out his phone to record it, as he watches her fully embrace it, pointing up to him as she sings the lower point, _I will drive past your house, and if the lights are all down, I’ll see who’s around_ , looking away from him like he was a piece of shit immediately after and striding back across the room.

He can feel himself growing hard, watching fucking fiery Gerri come to light, watching as everyone else takes in her performance when she takes her curly hair down, ruffling it up and throwing her head around when the guitar solo comes; rolling it around in circles with her eyes closed as she fully feels it. When she starts singing again, he’s shocked when she jumps up onto the couch, walking along slowly to him as she continues singing. He stands there, smirking like a deer in the headlights, his phone lowering the closer she gets whilst everyone else’s eyes widen, screaming at the top of their lungs for her as the metal music continues she directs the lyrics towards him again, presses her finger into his collar bone, grasping his phone and locking it before throwing it on the couch behind her, pressing her hand onto his shoulder as he dips down onto his knees before her laughing, whilst she gruffs louder into the microphone, her face bending down closer to his as she continues singing. She finally jumps off of the couch at the last _I’ll give you the slip,_ the music speeding up, making her way back to where she had originally stood, finishing the song, as the music finally fades out.

She takes a deep breath, feeling as though she had just woken up from a fucking trance, everyone squealing for her, Roman having made his way in front of her, dropping to his knees and paying homage as she straightens her back ignoring him, raising her arms in the air and taking a huge bow, before standing back up as she takes in his awe.

“Where the fuck did that come from?!” Karolina shouts, clapping her hands above her head, missing a few times.

“Fucking badass,” she hears Dana mumble drunkenly to Karolina.

“Was Gerri, like a fucking rock chick then?” Tom asks Frank seriously, who starts laughing.

“Only because it was your birthday,” she points Roman as she notices him standing up, pulling her into a hug as everyone continues clapping for her, moving on quickly.

“That was fucking brilliant,” he growls, pulling back from her, the only response he receives is a quirk of her eyebrow.

The night continues on with the same energy. More karaoke, all of them getting drunker, Roman successfully pulling an even drunker Gerri into _I got you babe_ duet, Ray taking it too far as he tries to strip to _Pour Some Sugar on Me_ , Frank drunkenly grumbling a Tony Bennet number as Cyd opts to take on new prey in Tom, Joan, and Ray with a game of Poker. Dana, Gerri, Karolina, and Roman opting for a game of beer pong (with wine because they aren’t fucking cavemen). Though Roman does encourage Frank and Gerri into a beer chugging competition after fucking wine pong is over; Gerri just winning as Frank splutters the last few gulps.

The party starts to wind down, Hugo having fallen asleep on the couch, Joan having retired early; too drunk and enough of her money now in Cyd’s pocket. Tom and Ray continue to get fleeced as Cyd smokes a cigar, Larry having taken Joan’s place, her killer manoeuvres winning her a fortune from the two idiots that are too stupid to back out early, Larry having learned from last night when to fucking fold. Frank watches the game on the sidelines, one eye closed to help his spinning head concentrate, the other eye narrow trying to figure out Cyd’s tactics. Dana ends up retiring early too, a sleepy drunk if there ever was one, Karolina putting her to bed. Roman, Gerri, and Karolina had ended up floating around the pool, all of them too drunk to know better, slurring their conversation.

“You know,” Karolina not so successfully whispered, the doors closed anyway, “you too are so fucking cute,” she starts scoffing, her eyes closed as she leans back into the wall of the pool.

“You think so?” Roman asks laughing, sharing a drunken glance with Gerri.

“Uhuuuu,” Karolina sings, her head lolling to the side, as she opens one eye to look at them. “And you,” she points to Gerri, who smiles gently, her eyes heavy, leaning her stomach on top of a floaty. “You’re fucking killing it. Isn’t she, Roman?” She asks him fiercely, splashing water towards him as he closes his eyes nodding.

“She is. She’s the head fucking bitch in charge,” he agrees, his words droning as he tries to pronounce them.

“That’s nice,” Gerri responds sweetly, squishing her cheek into the floaty.

“And this is just what we needed!” Karolina declares loudly. “This retreat. Where everyone could fucking chill out,” she lifts her arms, imitating waves, her lips pursed. “Get to know each other. Have fun. Get drunk. Not like the other fucking retreats. SO FUCKING TENSE!” She shouts splashing the water again when she swishes her hand.

“Bit better than Boar on the Floor!” Roman reasons, pointing at Karolina, pouting with his eyes half closed, his body swaying from side to side without his knowledge.

“Exactly! I wasn’t even there but what I was told,” she huffs dramatically. “We don’t need that shit! It’s stressful enough!” Karolina declares, standing up tall. “We need shit like this! Like Gerri in charge! Letting people have views and opinions, and if they’re shit, she’s just like nah. It won’t work,” she throws her hands up dramatically, shaking her head, her eyes bulging, as though it were obvious. “And you trust her! You know that if she tells you it’s shit, it’s because it is shit. Because she’s smart,” she lifts her head to her temple, tapping it as her eyes open and close. “You know it’s not some fucking mind game, because she wants the best for all of us,” she whirs her hand in a circle quickly.

“Yeah,” he hums, moving his legs up so he’s floating on the surface, still clinging onto the wall as he closes his eyes. “She’s pretty fucking great.”

Gerri opens her eyes, looks over to him sweetly and smiles.

“But you’re great too, Rome,” Gerri says gently.

“Roman?!” Karolina shouts. “Roman is the life and soul of the party,” she shouts, reaching her arm to him. “Everyone loves Roman. He’s the only one who could ever get away with being so fucking brash, but you fucking love him for it. I love being around Roman. Everyone does. Work would be so fucking mundane without him!” She shouts, looking at him with a furrowed brow, as he opens his eyes and looks over to her surprised.

“Yeah, I’m talking about you, you airhead,” Karolina shouts as she floats a little towards him. “You need to stop doubting yourself. Because you’re smart! You have great ideas and you have so much you could do. I’ve wanted to ring your fucking neck so many times when you’ve done such stupid things when you have so much fucking potential. Stop doubting yourself and being a little idiot. Keep doing what you’ve been doing,” she shouts nearly in his face at this point as she clings to his shoulder, trying to make him believe it.

“You see,” Gerri comments knowingly. “I’ve told you all this, but you never believe me.”

Roman gives a small smile and shrug as he leans back against the wall again, wrapping his arm around Karolina’s shoulder to pull her in for a half-sideways-hug, unsure how to express his affection in any other way.

“You need to stop that shit,” Karolina dresses him down. “Everyone’s behind you. Everyone knows how good you are. The only one who's holding you back is you,” she pushes her finger into his collar bones, her strength actually hurting him a little, as he reaches up to rub it with a grimace.

“Has anyone ever told you you’re very profound and forceful when you’re drunk?” Roman laughs as she pulls a _whatever_ face, shrugging.

“My husband, Oli tells me all the time,” she shrugs. “Apparently I give a good drunken pep talk.”

“It’s definitely working here,” he smiles, pulling her in to kiss her temple as she leans against him. “You’re fucking great Karolina. Always do your job and you’re loads of fun. You’re a fucking asset. Isn’t she Gerri? The best one in there,” he slurs to Karolina, his forehead leaning against Karolina’s temple, as Gerri nods in agreement.

“I love this guy,” Karolina whispers sweetly to Gerri, putting a hand on his chest and tightening her arm around his back.

“Well he’s taken,” Gerri mumbles sleepily with a laugh.

“Obviously. So am I,” Karolina declares, backing away from Roman and pushing back against the water, creating a small wave. “I think I’ll go wake up Oli up. Make his night,” Karolina raises her eyebrows flirtatiously before climbing out of the pool.

“Karolina, it’s like 6am there,” Gerri reminds her, raising her head from the floaty for a second to look up at her.

“Yeah, so he’ll just have woke up. Make his morning,” she teases, sticking her tongue out. “Plus. it means you two can you know,” she points to the pool, swirling her finger around. “I can cover for you for five minutes. Lock the door and hide the key,” she laughs wrapping herself in a towel, as they both join in.

“Karolina, don’t for fuck sake,” Roman shouts laughing.

“I can’t hear youuuuu,” she sings as she slides open the door to the villa, shutting it hard behind her, locking it and taking the key, before showing them it and dropping it down her bathing suit before laughing as she turns back to everyone.

Both of them shake their head at her whilst laughing at her, looking back at one another.

“She’s nuts,” he laughs.

“She’s drunk,” Gerri slurs as her head hits the floaty again, Roman floating a little closer.

“So are you,” he reminds her with a laugh.

“So are you,” she frowns, challenging back.

“I didn’t say I wasn’t,” he smirks again, putting his hands on her floaty and pulling it so she sifts through the water, further over to the other side of the pool where it curves off to the side of the villa without windows and no one can see them.

“Roman,” she warns lightly, though her eyes are still closed.

“What?” He whispers.

“We can’t do this here,” she mumbles again.

“Do what? Float around?” He challenges, his voice heavy, as she finally opens her eyes. “Let’s play a game. Truth or dare?”

“I don’t want to play.”

“Come on, it’s my birthday!”

“Technically, it’s the day after your birthday,” she reasons.

“We’ve not gone to sleep yet. So, it’s still my birthday. Truth or dare?” He asks as he continues pulling her around.

“Truth.”

“Okay… is it true that you genuinely have never masturbated in your office?” He asks with a laugh.

“Roman,” she laughs back exasperated. “No, I have not masturbated in my office.”

“So many fantasies vanquished,” he comments still pulling her around.

“Truth or dare?”

“Dare,” he declares dramatically.

“I dare you to start being nicer to Frank until New Year,” she smiles, laughing a little.

“What?! What the fuck!”

“He’s been really good to you, Roman.”

“You call that baseball today, good?”

“I call that passionate. He sang karaoke for you. He hula danced for you. And he put a lot of effort into this party,” she reminds him, peaking out of one of her eyes. "He genuinely cares about you."

“Fine!”

“Good boy,” she breathes, closing her eye again.

“Truth or dare?”

“Truth.”

“You can’t just keep picking truth,” he frowns.

“Yes, I can. Truth.”

“Okay,” he hesitates. “That conversation we had earlier,” he begins as she opens her eyes to look at him. “You swear under the laws of truth or dare where you cannot tell a lie, that it wasn’t just because you think this is a temporary thing? That you think we could you know, get married one day?”

He looks so worried, his Adam's apple bobbing as he gulps in fear, waiting for her answer, as she reaches her hand out, stroking her finger along his hand that is still grasping her floaty.

“Under the binding contractual laws of truth or dare, no I didn’t say it because I think this is temporary and I do think we could eventually marry one day in the future if it keeps going the way it’s going. Now be thankful because I basically just answered two truths there,” she reasons as she closes her eyes, still stroking across the back of his hand with her finger.

“Truth or dare?” She mumbles as he pulls her along with a big grin.

“Truth.”

“Do you really want to pursue this thing with your dad?” She asks slurred, opening her eyes once the question is out of her mouth, her expression serious.

He hesitates, looks down for a moment.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “Yeah, I do. I love my dad and I’m sure it makes me a shitty person, but he’s toxic. To me, to Waystar, to everyone he’s around. He’s done a lot to me in the past and honestly, if he was still running the business now, I couldn’t say with certainty that I would have as much confidence in myself that I do right now. So, yeah. I think it has to be done.”

“As long as you’re sure,” she whispers, stroking his hand a little firmer now.

“I’m sure,” he affirms solidly. “Okay, truth or dare?”

“Tru- Dare!” She smiles, catching his eye roll at her.

He moves to her side, looking around to double check, before sliding his fingers down the skin at her back, over her bathing suit, dipping at her waist, and under the water to trail down her backside and then tickling down the skin of her leg, whilst she offers a small hum.

“I dare you to kiss me,” he whispers against a kiss on her upper arm, as she turns her floaty towards him whilst he grins when her face approaches his, a mix of determination and mischief.

“Hello,” he offers as he pulls the floaty closer to him, whilst he takes steps back towards the wall of the pool.

“Hello,” she whispers back as she moves closer to him, a breath away before she kisses him softly. Offering a peck, two pecks, three before the kiss automatically turns more passionate, becoming downright heated when she finds the ground, the floaty abandoned as she pushes her body tightly against his, pressing him against the wall. He responds eagerly, running his hands down her back to her backside, pulling her centre closer to him.

“Roman,” she breathes when she pulls back, he taking the opportunity to clasp his hands under her thighs, heisting her up onto him, encouraging her to wrap her legs around him, as he turns them around so she’s pressed up against the pool wall now, whilst he attacks her neck.

“We shouldn’t do this here,” she attempts to protest, her grip around his shoulders tight, her core already rolling up against his growing hard on.

“I can’t help it,” he whispers in her ear. “Your so fucking beautiful. Then in the bathing suit and this perfect day. I just had to have you at the first opportunity,” he divulges whispering, his breath hot against her neck as she moans at the eroticism of it all.

_Fucking in a pool. Gerri Kellman. Aged 61. Fucking in a pool whilst her colleagues partied ten feet away. What the fuck was she doing? But oh my fucking god did she want this right now. My fuck it was a turn on._

She can feel her heart pounding in her chest, and her centre beginning to pulsate.

She pulls his head back with both hands splayed across his jaw and neck as she plunges at his mouth, her tongue attacking his as he pushes his erection against her core. He continues squeezing at her behind, beginning to move so he can explore a little, slipping his hand down her thigh as she remains hectic, rubbing herself against the hard length she can feel against her. As he moans into her mouth, she pulls away, biting at his lip, causing him to moan louder.

He makes his attack on her collarbone, mouthing down further to her breast as his teeth graze across her nipple through the fabric, her head pressing back against the wall in pleasure. He moves back up quickly to lick, bite, and kiss at the swell of her breast peaking over the costume as he ventures back up, stilling to look into her heavy, heated eyes. They are both breathing so raggedly from arousal that they are only able to peck their lips against the other every so often, still instinctively moving their hips against each other.

“Do you want to go upstairs? Finish it there?” He asks her, his eyes heavy with lust, her nails grazing his neck.

“Touch me, first,” she whispers. “I dare you,” she moves to his jaw to run her teeth along it. It’s a challenge. One he’s willing to meet as a grin forms on his lips, giving a final peck on her shoulder, before one of his hands leave her thigh, his body taking the majority of her floating weight as his hand ventures across her hip and down to her centre as she pulls back pushing her forehead against his. He moves the crotch of her bathing suit to the side easily, grazing his fingers against her nub as her eyes that were looking lustfully into his, change completely into her eyes rolling back into her head, her mouth falling open as she breathes heavier, her head lolling back. He watches her, breathing heavily in tandem with her, his fingers working their magic as he pushes them hard against her, changing his technique every so often; up and down, side to side, swirling in a circle as her thighs tighten around him, his hand trapped between them, his fingers the only things with any wiggle room, the back of his hand giving small friction to his throbbing length.

“Oh, Rome,” she gasps quietly, riding against her hips harder as her thighs cling tightly around him. She can feel that she’s close already as he moves his lips against her jaw, licking and sucking against her.

She feels the pace quickening, her movements more frantic, his fingers speeding up, harder now, as her breath hitches with each wave that runs through her.

“Come on, babe. Let go for me,” he groans, his teeth grazing her jaw.

She opens her eyes, looking into his lustfully, his fingers still moving against her, her body ready for release.

“I want you to fuck me,” she whispers a little slurred. “Fuck me here. In this pool,” she orders him, her voice deep and breathy.

“Gerri,” he whispers, pushing his hard on up against the back of his hand desperately, as she loosens the hold of her thighs around him, quickly pushing her hand under the water between them to touch him through his swimming shorts.

“Please, baby,” she groans, looking into his eyes as he kisses her fiercely, her hand venturing under his shorts, grasping his length, as he moans into her mouth. She tries to move her hand up and down quickly, encouraging him to see her way as his fingers pause on her clit, moving away to wrap around her waist instead.

She pulls him out, trying to manoeuvre him into her, struggling to jigsaw them together with how drunk she is and their angle. He hikes her up a little, their open mouths simply brushing, allowing her to direct him as she slides down onto him, their collective sigh, their noses caressing as he fills her up. He tries to build up a steady rhythm, it proving a little harder with the water and the depth. He kisses her gently as he pushes her along the wall, a little further from the villa where it’s shallower, hoping for a little better leverage.

It seems to work as he starts pumping into her again, kisses now skimming her ear, one of her hands leaving his shoulder to grasp the pools edge above her as she stifles a moan, her thighs tightening around him as he pushes her repetitively into the wall, her hips meeting his every thrust as she tries to concentrate on the sensations between them.

“Fuck Gerri,” he whispers as he speeds up, frenzied now in his mission to get her off before he does, fully aware of how long they have been out here alone.

“That’s it, Rome,” she breathes, biting her lip at the friction he’s creating against her clit, his thrusts shorter as he speeds up, pressing his hip bones continuously against hers.

“Your so fucking hot. That fucking karaoke,” he groans quietly. “I was ready to get on my knees and worship your body right there,” he whispers as she gasps closing her eyes.

“I was ready to let you,” she whispers back, open mouthed kisses licking over his neck, on the edge of release again.

“My fucking siren,” he groans, pumping harder, hitting that spot that makes her mewl, feeling her begin to clench around him.

“Roman,” she gasps breathily, quickly looking for his mouth as she starts moaning, her orgasm taking over her, her hand dropping from the pools edge to tighten around his shoulders, her body arching up into him, her hips bucking against him, his short thrusts stroking that special spot within her as his own orgasm begins to wash over him. “Oh baby, ugh,” she whispers again into his mouth as she feels him jerk uncontrollably inside her. His tongue renewing its vigour against hers, as he spills within her and in the pool, jerking his hips unceremoniously against her until he can no longer breathe.

“Yeah, yeah. Fuck, yeah,” he pants when he moves away from her mouth, his cheek resting on her shoulder, his breath tickling her neck.

She strokes the back of his neck, her thighs relaxing around him a little as she tries to catch her breath, his hands still firmly on her thighs as he holds her up and around him, she wedged tightly between him and the wall.

“I had sex in a pool,” she breathes, closing her eyes before she starts giggling, he joining her as he pecks her neck.

“You fucking did,” he agrees, pulling back from her.

“I’m drunk,” she giggles harder.

“You are. We should get back in or people will talk. Then get you into bed.”

“I don’t know if I can quite breathe yet,” she laughs as he lifts her off of his dick, her legs unwrapping around him as she fiddles with her bathing suit crotch to get it back in place when her feet are firmly on the ground.

“Want me to go in first then?” He asks, floating away from her.

“Wait,” she says heavily, beckoning him back over, as he follows with a furrowed brow.

She leans in and kisses him hard.

“You’re coming to my bed again tonight?” Her voice almost uncertain.

“Need you ask? I thought it was customary now,” he smiles, pecking hard again before wading away again.

“Just checking. Only to sleep mind you,” she smiles as he begins climbing out.

“I think you’re growing used to me,” he puffs his chest out, teasing her, reaching for his towel.

“I think I might just be,” she slurs with the quirk of an eyebrow as she floats towards him.

“You fucking like me,” he teases childishly.

“Like a hole in the head,” she hits back slurred.

“Before you know it, you won’t be able to sleep without me. You’ll be pining,” he smirks.

“So, I’m pining now?”

“One of us definitely is.”

“I feel like you planned this all along. Trying to get me hooked,” she plays along.

“My usual move. Whilst she sleeps you hold her close, for this is what she loves the most. Between her legs you keep her fed, then you shalt never leave her bed,” he smiles.

“Shakespeare?”

“Prince Charles,” he quirks back.

“Go in and I’ll follow to bed when enough times passed and when I can climb the stairs,” she laughs as she moves back onto the floaty, drifting around.

He laughs as he ventures towards the door, looking at the people inside as he tries to open it; still locked.

_God, she hopes no one swims in this pool tomorrow after what they had done._

“Karolina!” Gerri hears Roman shout as she lifts her head off the floaty to look up, watching as Karolina comes to the door, holding her hands up confused through the glass with a shit eating grin.

“Open the fucking door. The keys in your fucking costume, you douche canoe!”

Gerri continues laughing as she closes her eyes again, floating around.


	5. Sunday morning/afternoon

Roman shows up to their breakfast meeting with a groan, his head still thumping, his stomach still aching. Despite Gerri forcing them both to take a super hangover sachet a half hour ago and the shower she had pushed him into, he was still feeling the effects. He knew she was playing down her hangover better than he was, considering how he had left her before his shower looking like a cute fucking mess. She sat at the head of the table, sipping her coffee, chatting with Frank, looking perfectly respectable now. Come to think of it, Frank, Cyd, Larry, and Hugo all looked perfectly at ease considering the amount he knew they had consumed last night. Karolina and Dana were a bit worse for wear; Dana had her head in her hands, taking deep breaths, whilst Karolina simply sat with her eyes calmly closed.

“Did you get a hold of your husband last night?” Roman asks her when he takes a seat next to her.

“Did I what?” Karolina turns her head to him, opening her eyes slowly.

“Your husband. You said you were going to call him last night? Did you?”

She looks confused, pulling her phone out and opening it to check her call logs.

“Apparently I did. I don’t remember much past screaming into a microphone,” she groans, putting her phone on the table.

“I don’t remember going to bed,” Dana moans as Ray looking like death, also sits down across from them with a plate of food.

“Karolina had to put you to bed,” Joan giggles next to Ray, her light demeanour a little more dimmed than her usual morning perkiness from the past few days.

“I did?” Karolina asks.

“Thanks, I guess. Was a good night though,” Dana offers a small smiling, chancing a sip of her coffee.

“Oh my god. I think I’m dying,” Tom approaches the table, sitting on the opposite head between to Roman and Ray.

“It was a good night,” Roman smiles softly before standing up, ready to try and fill his plate though his stomach protests.

“Okay,” Gerri announces at the top of the table, gaining everyone’s attention. “Now that we’re all here, we should get started. I can imagine you’re all feeling a little fragile after last night,” she giggles a little, to a choir of groans and nods. “Did you all have fun at least?”

There is another sea of nods, a few verbal agreements.

“As I said the other day this is just an informal meeting,” she begins before she is interrupted by Roman, filling his plate up at the nearby table.

“It’s an opportunity to get out your ideas,” he looks directly at Gerri with a smirk, “one way or another,” finishing with a shit eating grin as she hears a few teeters echoing around the table.

“Yeah, ha ha ha, I sang karaoke,” she throws nonchalantly, “but if memory serves, I wasn’t the one who ended up on my knees,” she throws a pointed look back at him with a small grin, earning even more chuckles. “And I will thank you to delete that fucking video.”

“No can do,” he hits back, moving back to put a croissant on his plate. “Already got fifty thousand views on PornHub. It’s amazing how popular the femdom category is these days,” he grins widely as she rolls her eyes as the chuckles become louder.

“I thought it was a great performance, Gerri,” June pipes up supportively, earning her a kind smile in return.

“Anyway,” Gerri breathes. “This is just an opportunity to throw around some ideas you might have for your departments or for the company as a whole. There are no wrong answers. We may pursue some, we may not. Obviously, dependent on what you have to suggest, Larry is going to have to look into its affordability. Roman and myself into its possibility. So, does anyone want to start?” She asks kindly, looking around, her pen twisting between her fingers, hovering over her notepad.

“Uhh… I’ll go first then,” Frank pipes up, looking down at a sheet of paper with various things scrawled over it. “Well, the whole parks thing obviously has been,” he pauses to cough a little, “precarious. So, I think a good way forward, a good leap of faith would be to have secured policies in place to protect all employees in cruises from something like this happening again. Obviously, we have the Waystar policies which do effect some of the employees on cruises, but I think an obvious first step is to protect all people in cruises specifically, regardless of their port, to give faith to our employees and customers again,” he finishes looking around.

“That’s pretty obvious, Frank,” Roman fires abruptly, sitting down at the table again, his plate full. However, Gerri shoots him a glare, a reminder of his dare from last night. “It’s a great idea though. Very considerate,” he adds quickly, picking up a grape before plopping it into his mouth.

“Yeah, it was next on my agenda after speaking to the previous victims,” Gerri says, still writing quickly. “I wanted to get all the facts of what exactly the issues were before drawing up the policies, but it was going to be my next step. Maybe you could start a liaison with the current employees in cruises, get some feedback and you communicate with legal to input some of the ideas into the new policies after the New Year,” she nods to him encouragingly as he writes something down. “But yeah, a good start Frank.,” Gerri smiles kindly, looking around the table. “Anything else anyone would like to suggest?”

“Well,” Joan jumps in when no one else seems willing to, “the thing is with parks,” she shifts uncomfortably in her seat, “is that whilst there has always been a steady flow of customers, there has never been the same customer influx as other big parks like Disney and Universal,” she shrugs, as people around the table nod. “When I went down there, I took my grandchildren with me and I couldn’t help noticing that it is a little bit… uhm… well… stale,” she scrunches up her nose, looking at Gerri nervously.

“How do you mean stale?” Gerri asks, having not looked at the parks apart from inside their fucking offices in a stupid amount of time, though she doesn’t remember a lot of revamping on the budget for them either. She writes down the word ‘stale’ next to parks on her notepad, circling it with a firm dot, looking back up to Joan for her to continue.

“Well,” Joan starts reticently again. “I’m not going to lie. It was boring,” she blurts out as Roman holds back a laugh. “The last ride that was put in was 10 years ago. The only new addition being a mascot of that fucking turkey. Some of the rides there are over 20 years old. We are being outdone by every other park for how thrilling their rides are, how appealing they look, how much they attract children,” she shrugs. “Don’t get me wrong, my grandchildren did enjoy it. But as an experiment, I took them to Disney and Universal after and there was no comparison.”

“I have to agree with Joan here,” Roman chimes in as everyone looks towards him, Gerri quirking an eyebrow. “When I went down at the beginning of the year, I did notice that it’s pretty shitty,” he shrugs. “There isn’t a lot there that is really attracting anyone. Probably just the fact that it’s cheaper than the other parks is the only attraction.”

“So, what do you suggest?” Gerri asks, looking back towards Joan.

“I think we need a revamp. A complete revamp. New rides, more thrilling rides. It needs to be more colourful. It needs to be more appealing. We’ve had these new movies come out and we haven’t put the money into incorporating them into rides. Fuck, I went to Universal and there’s a whole fucking Harry Potter castle and village now!”

“But they still have the whole woody woodpecker shit as well at Universal. What is it? Toon Lagoon? No one gives a shit about that anymore and people go?” Tom shrugs.

“Yeah, but it’s colourful. It appeals to young children. It has a log flume. It has rides kids want to go on. It’s still attractive. It’s like the Marvel thing. You don’t need to like the fucking Hulk movie to go on the ride. People just like the ride because it’s thrilling,” Joan argues back. “We need to incorporate the movies that appeal to kids, that make them want to go on the ride with the stupid fucking Turkey, and we need more thrilling rides for the adults and older kids.”

Gerri writes down notes, nodding as she goes along, looking up to Joan and around the table when she’s finished speaking.

“What does everyone else think about this?” She asks everyone.

“I mean,” Ray groans. “The parks are kind of shit,” he grits out. “They could be a lot better.”

“My whole point is that we can keep on going charging shitty prices for a shitty experience, or we can take on Disney and Universal and hit it into the stratosphere with a little investment,” Joan shrugs.

“I think it’s a great idea, Joan,” Roman smiles, looking up at Gerri.

“Larry, can I leave it with you to look into the potential cost of what that would be,” Gerri begins before Roman interrupts.

“I have to say when I was in the management training programme, I don’t think we’re taking into account the ideas being put forward by the new people who are brainstorming potential rides,” Roman suggests, his amazing horror ride in mind.

“You need actual engineers for shit like that,” Tom laughs at him.

“Yeah I know that pea brain. What I mean is that these people are coming in from an outside perspective. They clearly have an objective point of view that we no longer have because we look at it from a corporate point of view. However, we make them come up with ride ideas on their first days and pitch them to us, and then what? We toss them in the trash?” He pulls an exasperated face. “Shouldn’t someone be like, I don’t know? Sifting through them for some ideas. The people who do this are obviously conscientious enough to have got into the programme and have ideas about its progression and yet we aren’t using it? Why the fuck not? When we could be getting an idea of what people want from the parks and then creating them,” he shrugs as everyone looks around.

“I think that’s a good point, Roman,” Dana interjects. “We should be taking into account the ideas of people who have a perspective we don’t.”

“It’s about whether we have the money to implement them though,” Gerri intervenes harshly, pointing a look at Roman.

“It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider them though. The management there should be collating them and looking for trends or great ideas and passing them onto Joan,” Roman fires back again.

“I can get them to do that. I can get them to collate it,” Joan states, writing down furiously on her notepad.

“I think Joan,” Gerri approaches softly, “you should work on getting that and perhaps some other market research. The idea of taking your grandchildren was a good. Get some children in. Get them to offer some feedback. Children will always be honest. But get the opinion of the parents too. There’s no harm in getting the information whilst we see if we can make it happen,” she tells Joan as she continues to write down furiously.

“I… uhm…,” Joan starts again. “I also have been getting feedback that some people are reticent about the park because of the name. The _Brightstar_ and its connection to cruises and this whole scandal. I don’t know whether we should consider a rebrand,” Joan bites her lip.

“Well, actually,” Gerri sighs, “we’ve already been thinking about that. I’m sure you’ve heard about Roman’s online streaming platform for the studio. We decided to go ahead and move away from Brightstar with that and have been considering rebranding the public facing entities completely. Cruises, Parks, and the studio to move away from that. What do you all think?”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Hugo chimes in. “From a media perspective, it would stop future customers from associating cruises with any bad press, which is obviously an issue right now.”

“Also, it would stop the press associating it with parks and the studio,” Karolina interjects.

“Again, the idea would be for Larry to have a look at the potential cost of rebranding. It definitely needs to happen with cruises, but it seems that the cost of not rebranding would be pretty copious,” she reasons gaining a wave of nods around the table.

There is a silence, everyone biting into their food, Roman’s mouth full as he tries to swallow a croissant whole.

“So, has anyone got any other ideas?” Gerri asks smiling.

“Actually, I do,” Tom pipes up, staring directly at Gerri as Cyd’s eyes begin narrowing.

“Tom…,” Cyd begins warningly.

“I do have a few ideas. I had run them by Cyd, but she pretty much wouldn’t listen,” he says plainly, throwing Cyd under the bus.

“Because they were likely fucking stupid,” she groans as he rolls his shoulders, closing his eyes, trying to ignore her.

“I’m sorry, is the floor open here, or?” Tom asks brashly, looking around to Cyd.

Roman stifles a laugh again, impressed that Wambsgans even has the balls to take in the Peach.

“The floor is open,” Gerri tells him resolutely, shooting a warning glance at Cyd.

“Well, the demographic for ATN is like fucking what? A median age of 68. People who are going to be dead within the next fucking two decades, probably less. If we want this to be a longer thing, we need to bring down that fucking age here. With the new age of people supporting Trump, half the nation seems to be with what we are trying to deliver on our news, so why the fuck are so few people watching it from that age range? Because it’s fucking antiquated,” he barks as Gerri raises an eyebrow. “We only concentrate on the actual fucking news on television and Roman, back me up here, does anyone really watch the news on tv unless something big is happening?”

“No,” Roman mumbles through his croissant, shaking his head.

“No, they don’t,” Tom affirms. “They get it on their phones. On Facebook. On Twitter. On their newsfeeds. On apps that they download that send them headline notifications that they then click on to read the story. We should be trying to focus on that. We should be getting our app better. Working with social media to get it up to par; someone regularly updating it, writing columns for people online to read, gaining their opinions, giving them a voice, getting them talking about us in a positive light instead of the fucking lefties just using it to bash us, so that we can reach the younger fucking generations. We should be working with the social networking sites to boost our posts to that people who search certain things see it. Working the algorithms in our favour,” he pants, out of breath from his angry rant as Cyd rolls her eyes.

“Tom, we don’t cater to fucking children. We cater to highly highly intelligent viewers. Scholars, politicians, writers. If we go down this route trying to write for children, we will lose all of the viewers we have built up for years,” Cyd argues back.

“Who says you need to change the way you write?” Hugo chimes in. “You just write for the intelligent people and let younger generations come in and learn.”

“There are younger people who are also scholars you know; who are also interested in a debate. They aren’t all latte sipping losers like you make out,” Tom argues back.

“Okey. Everyone take it easy,” Gerri interjects. “I don’t think there’s any harm in looking into the app and social media aspect of things.” Cyd is about to interject until Gerri holds up her hand, silencing her. “Let me finish. I think we should take it slowly. Start looking into the algorithms; the whole thing. We already have the social media and app there, right?”

“Yeah,” Roman confirms, sipping on his juice.

“Right, so it’s a case of trying to promote it. Maybe we keep an eye on how much interest it gets to see if there is a demographic for it, before sinking money into it,” she offers as Cyd rolls her eyes. “But Tom. This is your project. You liaise with the people who run the social media and the apps. You are the one who reports on this back to us at the next meeting to see if it’s been making a difference. Whilst it’s good to draw in more viewers, I also don’t want to lose the current ones. Got it?” She instructs as he types out her plan is phone, nodding.

“Okay,” Gerri sighs. “Any other ideas?”

“Yeah, actually,” Roman jumps in, pulling his foot up onto his chair. “I have an idea. After our baseball thing yesterday, I thought it would be pretty cool to do a kind of charity baseball game. Like, we pick a cause. I thought something to do with the cruise’s thing maybe? Like in support of women who have been harmed, or abused, or something? And maybe we can see if Pierce want to play us? Maybe we could use some of the anchors, some of the management. Sell tickets to family, friends, and media. Then we could put it all to charity,” he shrugs, looking at Ray’s frown in front of him.

“It would be really good publicity,” Karolina inputs.

“It would be fun too,” Dana interjects.

“I thought that after yesterday. It blew off a lot of steam, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I even think Frank secretly enjoyed being so angry,” he laughs as everyone sniggers with him. “But it would be for a good cause. It doesn’t even have to be so public. Doesn’t have to be the anchors. Just the management for both us and Pierce, just to do something good,” he says softly, Gerri’s small smile growing on her lips.

“I think that’s a good idea. I can contact someone from Pierce and see if they would be interested,” Gerri says gently, writing down the details. “I assume you would take responsibility for organising this? Choosing a charity?”

“Yeah. I can do that,” he nods.

“Great,” Gerri smiles. “This is a step in the right direction. Any other ideas?”

****

The rest of the breakfast had been less tense, a few more small ideas being thrown into the mix. Most of the attendees having progressively perked up, Gerri’s little fucking potion working a treat on him now.

He had watched Gerri and Cyd exchanging words after the breakfast as he had gone upstairs to change for going out on the boat soon.

He had heard her come back into her room, ten minutes later, both of their bathroom doors casually lying open as though their rooms more or less became one now.

“Hey,” he says gently, standing at her bathroom door as he watches her pull her shoes off on the edge of her bed. “What was that about with Cyd?”

“She was angry but she’s fine now,” she shrugs, standing up opening the top button of her pants before pushing them down easily.

“About the Tom thing? Does she really not want to expand their viewers?” He asks confused, pushing up against the door frame.

“She’s old school, Roman. She doesn’t want to upset the apple cart. But to be honest, I think this would be the best thing for them which is why I let him go ahead with it, but I told her that.”

“I’m not following,” he grimaces as she unbuttons her shirt.

“If this works out, they can split their duties. She can control ATN news broadcasting, journalism, and content. He can control the media/online side of things. They won’t step on each other; everyone gets an easy life. The thought of that seemed to cheer her up,” she grins, standing up, sliding her shirt down her arms, before walking to her drawers to pick out her new outfit.

“You evil genius,” he appraises, moving into the room and plonking onto the bed on his stomach.

“Not just a pretty face,” she fires back. “What did you think of the ideas anyway?”

“I thought they were good. I thought you got a bit fucking ratty with me over parks though,” he laughs a little, only slightly wounded.

“I think someone has to remind people that things cost money and we can only do what is within our means. That we need to prioritise some things over others because we don’t have money trees,” she teases him lightly as she places her new outfit on the bed next to him, picking the shorts up before sitting on the edge of the bed.

“I think I know that, but it was all about ideas this whole thing wasn’t it? I was simply splurging mine onto the table too,” he sits up, sitting behind her, kissing her bare shoulder as he traces his finger under her bra strap to move it aside.

“You have a habit of doing that,” she chides back, closing her eyes.

“Don’t remember you complaining the first time I did,” he breathes onto her shoulder as he kisses higher up her neck, she moving her neck to the side, pausing her dressing.

“I think that’s exactly what I did when I called you a disgusting little pig,” she tells him, turning her head so he is a breath away from her.

He smiles, pecking her lips, “a slime puppy, if I recall.” He pecks again, “your little slime puppy.”

She smiles, pecking back again.

“I liked your idea about the charity baseball,” she brings her hand up to stroke his stubble. “It was very sweet.”

“I think it would be a cool thing to do. If there’s publicity it could help our image as well,” he shrugs, his finger tracing along her shoulder again.

“It was a very,” she pecks his lips, “very”, she pecks again, “good idea.”

“Gerri,” he whispers, moving forward to kiss her harder, as she responds for a few seconds before pulling back.

“We don’t have time. Come on,” she stands up abruptly, pulling her shorts on. “We’ll be leaving soon.”

“Gerri,” he whines, laying back on the bed. “Come on. I only have one night with you left and then I’m back to a shitty empty bed.”

She smiles gently, moving towards him in her shorts and bra, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“We’ll make time,” she promises, taking his hand. “We have Karolina now. We’ll sort something out. And we still have tonight. I don’t plan on getting much sleep,” she flirts, bringing his hand up to kiss the back of it.

“You promise?” He asks, as she laughs, rolling her eyes.

“Do you need me to repeat everything twice to believe me?” She groans, dropping his hand, standing up and throwing her t-shirt over her head.

“Who’s even coming parasailing anyway?”

“Uhm… Cyd, Joan, and Frank, I think,” she determines, taking her jewellery off and placing it on the bedside table, as he groans. “You said you would try with Frank,” she warns.

“I know but does he need to do everything I do so I need to be nice 24/7,” he complains as she laughs.

“Listen, parasailing is one of the few things us oldies can do,” she begins before he cuts her off.

“What, because it’s literally sitting on a fucking swing,” he laughs.

“Yes,” she chides back. “So, don’t ruin it for any of us.”

“Roman and the Geriatric Brigade,” he huffs, putting his hands behind his head. “Sounds like a kid’s book. Oh my god, I just realised there’s a Gerri in geriatric,” he grins as she picks up a pillow and batters it off his head.

****

They’re on the speed boat, Gerri eagerly chatting with Cyd and Frank, as Roman shows Joan the video he had taken of Tom last night trying to strip off whilst she laughed heartily.

_She can’t believe she had been jealous of Roman and Joan. Looking at Joan now, she realised that she had been a complete innocent bystander in her idiotic jealousy. Though she couldn’t be sure she would feel the same right now if it hadn’t been for Roman and Karolina’s reassurance. If it hadn’t been for him lusting after her; fucking her in the pool last night. Just the thought of it makes the bottom of her stomach swirl with excitement. She never ever would have thought she would have done that in a million years. She doesn’t think she ever would have if she hadn’t had been completely fucking drunk. But maybe Roman was right. Maybe she was a bit of an exhibitionist because the thought of them doing that so secretly with everyone else only a stone throw away, though completely irresponsible, was a complete fucking turn on. She was more than ready for more antics tonight, more exploration of him when they went to bed, knowing that tonight may be their last for a while._

_She finds herself surprised that he’s been in her bed every night for almost a week and it hasn’t once bothered her; hasn’t once felt invasive. It’s actually been shockingly easy, shockingly comforting. She wonders if it’s because it’s so seldom that she’s basking in the ability to do it now; but there’s something within her that’s telling her that she’s going to miss not waking up to his complaints about her alarm, his attempts at keeping her in bed, his eager eye trailing her as she gets ready. She wants to make the most of tonight for that reason; hopes that the tiredness of a shitty night sleep will hit everyone later this evening, forcing them to retreat to bed early so they can take advantage of it. She will need to speak to Karolina later, see if she can plan for something soon. There was no press now, she didn’t have a doorman, maybe he could sneak up to her apartment more without the need for Karolina. They would need to figure it out._

“So, do you want to do the parasailing first or the water skiing?” The instructor asks, clasping his hands looking around at everyone.

They all look to each other shrugging, unsure what to do.

“What do you think?” Gerri squints her eyes, looking up to the instructor through her sunglasses.

“I think I’m the only one water skiing if you would rather get that out of the way?” Roman offers. “Would be nice to relax with a parasail afterwards?”

“All righty then. How about we get you kitted up then? Have you done this before?” He asks as Roman stands to join him.

“Yeah, loads of times. So, make sure to go for the highest ramps,” he laughs, stretching his arms out.

“All right. Well I’m going to be your observer today. Alice over there is going to be our driver. Just an update in some safety. Make sure to keep your knees bent and remain nice to steady so you can maintain balance. I’m just going to go through some of the hand signals with you for the usual: stop, speed up, turn, I'm OK, skier in the water, the usual,” the instructor explains to him as Gerri falls out of her own conversation, listening into theirs diligently.

Once all of the safety measures have been gone through, Roman stands on the edge of the boat, bidding everyone farewell before diving in headfirst to the water, putting on the skis once the instructor has glided them out to him, the rest of them in the boat leaning on the edge to watch him.

“I don’t know how he does it,” Frank laughs, shaking his head.

“He’s a thrill seeker. Did you expect anything else?” Cyd growls with a laugh.

“Joan! Make sure you get my jumps on camera, okay?” Roman shouts in the distance as the instructor sails the rope to him.

“Got it!” Joan shouts back, already holding up his phone, ready to hit record.

Gerri shakes her head, wondering how he has the energy to do it all. He’s basically laying back on the surface, his huge life jacket keeping him afloat as he sets himself into position.

“Are you ready Roman?” The instructor shouts as he holds up a hand signal.

“Hit it!” He shouts, holding a thumbs up as the boat begins whirring up and moving forward. They watch as he starts moving up through the water, the skis creating a trail of white behind him as he starts whooping loudly, moving straight as the boat speeds up faster and faster.

“Go Roman!” She hears Cyd shouting as he begins swaying to the left, then moving back into the middle before drifting off to the right. His arms are ripped, the sun shining on them, the water making them glisten as he starts to chance some small tricks like moving the handle up over his head, whooping when it works, everyone on board giving him a cheer as he does it. The next trick he tries is to move backwards, twisting under the rope and grinning over his shoulder at them.

Gerri’s impressed, though she can feel her stomach dropping each time he tries something that’s going to end up with him with a broken arm or leg or something, not really edging to nurse him back to health. She calms though as she watches as he safely turns back around to wave at them, a big idiotic grin that she can’t help but adore.

 _Stop showing off_ , is all she can think. _You’re going to get hurt._

Up comes the first ramp, as he bends his knees, concentrating as it lifts him up, he soaring into the air before hitting the water surface perfectly before punching the air and whooping as everyone on board again gives another roar of encouragement.

He begins whirring from side to side, giving a thumbs up to the observer raising it in the air repeatedly. She watches as the observer communicates something back to Alice.

“What does that mean?” She shouts to the observer.

“He wants to go faster,” the guy shouts back as she suddenly feels the speed of the boat pushing her harder into the seat, Roman screaming in pleasure as he feels it too.

He’s started to make a pattern in the water by moving from side to side, trying to push the water into huge sprays, his face concentrated as he successfully does so.

“Isn’t this dangerous?” Gerri asks, her brow furrowed as Frank starts laughing.

“He’s done this tons of times. Be thankful it’s not on a board. He tries to do flips and turns on that,” he laughs, squeezing her shoulder for comfort before quickly removing it to give him a big round of applause.

Another ramp approaches as he begins in a straight line again, ensuring that his form is in order. All he can see is their figures in the distance. The observer watching him astutely, Joan still holding his phone up as she gives a thumbs up or air pump every so often around it, smiling at him. Cyd is Cyd. Leaning up against the side of the boat as though she were lying on a chaise lounge, giving a clapping of her hands every so often. He thinks Frank looks the most excitable, a big grin on his face, cheering for every trick. Gerri, however, seems to be a mix of emotions. One minute worrying her bottom lip, the next clapping her hands to celebrate his victories with a sigh.

He approaches the ramp with ease, flying up it before flying through the air before he hits the surface again, looking to his supporters for appraisal. Watching their cheers, another sigh of relief from Gerri as her smirk accompanies her delicate clapping.

He begins whizzing from side to side again, enjoying the feeling of the air against his cheeks, taking in the stunning scenery around him, the sun beating down on him. **It’s absolute paradise.**

He sees another huge ramp coming up, ready to tackle it, ready to feel that feeling of flying again.

**Nothing like it. Like feeling like you’re a free bird for just a second. Feeling your stomach beautifully drop as you explore the air. He holds his breath for it, as though it would make it last longer. Closes his eyes sometimes to feel a though he were somewhere completely different; has done so since he was a child. There is nothing more liberating than the thrill of gliding through mid-air, at one with everything.**

He is approaching the ramp, shifting his foot to the side a little bit, when he realises the strap has come away. He looks down quickly, panicked, moving his foot to the side to further test it out whether his foot is secure when he loses his balance, his ski becoming caught on the ramp, his body flying forward as it batters off the wood, his head cracking off it as everything buzzes, only letting go of the handle at the last minute when he’s already been dragged up to the top; he blacks out.

“RED ALERT! TURN THE BOAT AROUND!” The observer shouts as everyone else on the boat gasps in shock.

“ROMAN!” Gerri shrieks, jumping up onto her knees on the seat, as they watch his head disappear as he begins sliding back down the ramp.

“Oh my god!” Joan shouts, dropping the phone onto the seat as Frank stands with his mouth agape completely silent.

“Roman!” Cyd shouts worried as she looks around.

“Turn the fucking boat around!” Gerri screams as they all begin flying to the side, hanging onto the edge whilst the boat whizzes in a 180 back to where Roman was.

Gerri tries to stand but the impact keeps throwing her back into the seat as her heartbeat speeds up, her temperature soars, all sound more or less disappearing.

They pull up to the side of the ramp, watching as he lies unconscious on top of it, his legs under water, blood dripping from under his head or his nose or she didn’t know what, flowing all way down the ramp.

“Roman!” She shouts again, hoping that somehow her voice would awaken him, make him give some stupid fucking thumbs up with a sassy fucking joke, but he doesn’t move.

She feels a hand on her shoulder as she whirs around, looking at Frank’s horrified expression, Joan’s sad face towards her, Cyd’s worried yet sceptical one.

Sound comes back to her as she hears Alice shouting down the radio attached to the boat about an emergency, medical assistance, an ambulance, but her attention goes to the instructor, watching as he dives into the water, swimming rapidly towards Roman.

She feels like time as slowed down, like her heart had stopped beating, that her mind no longer was her own.

_What if he’s dead? He can’t be dead? Surely, he’s not dead. He can’t fucking be._

They had all heard the crack of something thudding against the wood, unbeknownst to them, it was fucking Roman. Probably his fucking skull. They had only realised when they had seen his form lying at the top, disappearing down as the lone rope arrived.

She can feel everything rushing back to her; her anxiety at the worst it’s ever been, her hands shaking, her breath ragged, as she watches the instructor holding a finger to the pulse point under his jaw, holding his cheek to his mouth.

_He’s taking too fucking long. Why was it taking so long to know if he had a fucking pulse rate? Of course, he did. He had to. They had to hurry up and get him to a fucking hospital._

“Is he fucking breathing!?” Gerri shouts desperately, Franks grasp on her arm tightening as she shrugs out of it, standing taller.

“He has a pulse, but it’s weak,” the instructor shouts back, “we need to get him to a hospital.”

“The helicopter is on its way,” Alice shouts overhead.

“Helicopter?” Gerri throws her head to Alice. “He’s getting airlifted?”

“Yeah. We shouldn’t move him, it’s too dangerous. We’re too far away from the shore anyway and by the time we get there and, in an ambulance, it could take up to an hour,” she explains softly.

“I’m going with him,” Gerri declares, zipping up her lifejacket.

“I don’t know if they’ll let you, and even if they did, it would be hard to get you in there. It can’t come all the way down here,” she explains.

“Then they’ll have to throw down a fucking ladder because he’s not going to a hospital himself,” she shouts.

“Gerri,” Frank begins gently. “Be reasonable.”

“Be fucking reasonable?” She asks him incredulously.

“We can go to the island and get transport from there. Or even a helicopter from there. You can’t put yourself in danger as well,” he continues softly.

“You’ll probably just be in a waiting room until we would get there anyway,” Cyd adds with a sad expression.

“What if he dies?” She asks them breathily, her voice thick with emotion. “What if he has a head injury and dies in that helicopter on the way to the hospital?” She asks quietly with tears in her eyes. “Do you want Roman to die alone? No one holding his hand? A stranger watching over him? Because if you do, you aren’t the people I thought you were,” she spits out, shaking her head at them.

Frank and Cyd remain silent, taking deep breaths as Joan approaches her, puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Maybe I should go then,” Frank shrugs quietly, never taking his eyes off Roman.

“No, I’m his,” she pauses, “fucking boss. I seem to be the only one here who gives a shit so I should go,” Gerri declares forcefully, her eyes streaming now, her heart surging.

"Come on, Gerri," Cyd sighs. 

"That's not fair, Gerri," Frank protests. 

"Really? Is it fucking not?" Gerri challenges back, raising her voice. "What's not fair is that there is someone over there who we have known for perhaps his whole life, who could be about to fucking die and we're here arguing about whether I should get in a fucking helicopter with him so if that happens, he isn't alone!" 

“You should go with him. If he goes, it shouldn’t be with a stranger,” Joan breathes, rubbing her hand on Gerri’s shoulder before retracting it and looking back out to Roman.

“So, should I stay here or go over there,” Gerri asks directly to Alice, wiping her tears away from under her glasses.

“Maybe over there. I don’t know. I don’t know if they’ll even let you go,” Alice puffs, throwing her hands up.

“Then I should be over there so I can speak to them when they arrive,” Gerri reasons, throwing her sunglasses onto the seat, pushing her phone into her pocket and zipping it up as she stares over at Roman.

“Your phone, Gerri,” Cyd reminds her quickly, throwing her arm up.

“It’s waterproof. I’ll call when I know something,” she groans, standing up onto the seat before swinging her legs over and jumping off; plunging into the warm water before she begins swimming towards them.

“What are you doing here?” The instructor asks angrily, putting his support under Roman to prevent him slipping anymore, holding his chin up with his fingers.

“I’m going with him,” she says softly, taking in the blood streaming down the wood as she pushes her wet hair back from her face, her eyes stuck on him as they begin watering again.

“That’s out of the question,” he protests. “They’ll never let you.”

“Why don’t you just let me sort that out with them, okay?” She bites quickly, before turning back towards Roman, the instructor huffing.

His expression is soft, his nose is clearly broken as it juts out, blood streaming from it. However, the blood is also coming from elsewhere. She puts her hand delicately on his damp hair as she leans forward, trying to look underneath, noting the blood running from either the side of his face or his head, she can’t tell. It could be a laceration on his cheek bone or maybe from his ear, or his head, she just doesn’t know, and if any first aid teaches you anything, it’s not to move the body.

“Can he breathe okay?” She asks the instructor quietly as she watches Roman’s chest move slowly.

“He was already in a half recovery position. We just need to keep his airways open,” he breathes, looking up to the sky for any sign of a helicopter.

“Can I do anything?” She asks shakily, looking up to the instructor with teary eyes.

“Just hold his head up here so I can go communicate what I know to Alice, so she can give more information to the ambulance services. Can you do that?” He asks her, gesturing to his two fingers under Roman’s head.

She nods, taking over the two fingers to push his head up, opening his airways.

“Talk to him,” the instructor advises. “See if you can bring him round,” he gruffs before swimming back to the boat.

“Roman?” She tries gently, watching as her hand leaning against the wood, holding up his chin turns crimson with his blood.

However, no answer. No movement.

“Rome?” She tries again gently, tears running slowly down her cheeks as she swipes them away.

“You need to wake up, baby,” she whispers, pushing her hand through his hair, pressing a kiss to his temple, but he still doesn’t move, still doesn’t respond.

“Don’t you dare leave me; do you hear?” She tries to sound stronger, bolder, warning him, though her voice wavers. “I need you here with me.”

She looks down to his body, watching as the waves sway forward and backwards against his hip. She rubs at his shoulder a little, looking for any sign of broken bones through his whole body, not really seeing anything.

“Wake up, Rome,” she whispers again, completely pointlessly, her tears flowing again as she wipes them away.

_It feels hopeless. Is he going to fucking wake up? What if she never hears his voice again? What if she never sees that smirk again? What if she never gets to speak to him alive again?_

“I need you to know that I love you, Rome. More than I think I’ve ever loved anyone, and I can't lose you. I just can't. So, you need to fucking wake up, okay?” She tells him desperately, her voice wavering. “I need you to incessantly annoy me for the rest of my life, and you know no one could do it better,” she scoffs, wiping her dribbling nose. She leans down to press her lips to his cheekbone, leaving her lips resting there as she grazes and pecks against his skin. “Just please, wake up,” she breathes, closing her eyes tightly.

However, he remains completely still, looking wholly angelic apart from the crimson sea pouring from his head, running towards the water as her hand wraps around his, whispering _wake up_ on repeat against his ear.


	6. Sunday evening/night

There was unsurprisingly an argument with the paramedic when the helicopter had arrived. Gerri threatening legal action against them though on what grounds she could ever bring that about she wasn’t entirely certain. Her screaming had worked though as they hadn’t asked for specifics, had conceded quickly; fitting her into a harness, zipping her up to the helicopter after Roman had been safely secured there. One of the most terrifying experiences of her life, though all she could concentrate on was getting to Roman, a paramedic helping her into the helicopter as she watched Roman’s lifeless body lying there.

There wasn’t much she could do but watch when they had begun making their way there.

The paramedics fleeting around him, putting him on oxygen, injecting him with fuck knows what, taking readings from machinery, whilst she had screamed over them that he was to see the best physicians that this island had to offer, the cost no issue.

It was revealed that the blood had been coming from the side of his forehead near his temple, a large gash there, a broken nose, a suspected concussion though they couldn’t confirm anything, his vitals weak but still present.

She hadn’t been allowed in with him when he was pummelled onto a bed, rushed down a corridor with multiple doctors and nurses following at pace.

She had tried to make herself useful.

Giving information to the receptionist. The woman had a form flung at her and told her to fill out his details. Sitting nervously on a chair in a noisy communal waiting room surrounded by sick and injured people, she tried to sift her way through the form. Not really able to fill much information in since she didn’t know much past his date of birth, full name, and the odd family history issues she knew from Logan’s scares over the years. She had handed it back to the receptionist anxiously, afraid that the information she couldn’t provide would somehow result in his ultimate demise; unsuccessfully pleading for any kind of update before being told to take a seat and wait.

She should really have called someone. Should have picked up the phone to Logan, Shiv, Ken, Connor, even should have called Frank or Joan or Cyd like she had promised but she couldn’t. There was nothing to tell them anyway. She had simply stared at the double doors, perking up each time they had swung open to see down the corridor, looking hopefully at each doctor or nurse who had come out who had called someone else’s name.

She ignored her phone each time it had pinged or rang, not even glancing at the names there, eventually putting it on silent, its incessant distraction from the current situation becoming too frustrating, too overwhelming. The first time she had probably put her phone on silent since you were even able to put a phone on silent.

_What was she going to do? She felt completely helpless. Sitting here. Putting Roman’s life in someone else’s hands. Relying on someone else to save him, secure him, stabilise him. She felt out of control. For one of the first times in her entire life, she had a problem she couldn’t solve._

_The only comparable time was when Baird was dying, wasting away, at the mercy of modern medicine. This was different though. Baird’s diagnosis had been a shock, his disease taking over his body slowly, years of degradation, years to get used to the idea, saying her goodbyes, and spending time with him before he inevitably passed away._

_This was different._

_She didn’t know if Roman was going to die. Trapped in a nightmarish limbo, waiting to find out. Not knowing if Roman was about to be plucked away from her suddenly. Not being able to say her goodbyes if he did. Not being able to assure him that he was loved. Not having him promise her that he actually believed she did. The impact he had had on her in such a short space of time was staggering. Not being able to say all the things that she had been too afraid to say before was looking progressively likely. Not being able to give herself up to him fully._

_It wasn’t fair._

_He was young. He was spirited. He was too young to die. He had so much ahead of him. Had so much to accomplish. And she needs him. She needs him with her. She doesn’t want to go back to the lonely life she had before he started beautifully tormenting her. She doesn’t want to go back to being boring Gerri who lives for her job only. She needed him to help her out of that. She wanted him with her._

The door swings open again, a hopeful expression crossing her face as another doctor calls upon another name, so disappointed that she misses the door to the exit swinging open as three familiar bodies swoop in.

“Gerri? Thank God. Where the fuck have you been?” Cyd shouts, as Gerri looks up to the three of them doe eyed.

“Wha-?” Gerri begins quietly before being cut off.

“We’ve been trying to call you. Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Frank asks frustrated, towering over her as Joan takes a seat next to her.

“It’s on silent, I just-,” Gerri starts again quietly before her voice trails off.

“Have you heard anything?” Cyd pushes, standing with a hand on her hip next to Frank. “How he is? He’s not…,” Cyd trails off, about to say the word she was most dreading hearing from another human’s lips in regard to Roman.

“No,” Gerri protests quickly. “They took him in, maybe an hour ago. They’re doing, uhm, I don’t know what they’re doing. Tests? Stabilising him? I don’t know. They won’t tell me anything,” she sighs, shaking her head as Joan puts a hand on hers, placing her purse onto Gerri’s lap with a smile, as Cyd storms over to the receptionist.

“How are you, Gerri? You holding up?” Joan asks her softly.

“I’m fine. I’m just waiting to hear something,” Gerri nods lightly, opening her purse, pulling out her glasses cases, wiping her glasses on the cloth before putting her glasses on her face, it’s case back in her purse.

“I demand to speak to a doctor! Do you know who that guy in there is?! That’s Logan Roy’s son! I would advise you to get a doctor out here right fucking now before his father ends up shutting down this whole fucking building!” Cyd demands, as Frank comes up behind her putting his hands delicately on her arms and pulling her away as the receptionist starts spouting some excuse, her face like someone did a shit in her purse. “I’ll have your fucking job!” Cyd shouts, pointing at the receptionist as Frank continues pulling her away.

“Calm down, Cyd. It won’t do any good,” Frank attempts to soothe, looking around to everyone for some modicum of assistance.

“It’s a fucking disgrace,” Cyd growls. “She’s been sitting here for a fucking hour and no one has told her anything!”

“How about we go and get some coffee?” Joan asks, standing up and taking Cyd’s arm with a smile. “Gerri? Coffee?”

Gerri nods, running her hand over her forehead, leaning forward onto her knees as Joan directs Cyd away whilst she continues muttering angrily under her breath.

“You’re still soaked. You’re gonna end up ill,” Frank assesses, sitting down next to Gerri.

“I don’t care,” she breathes, her hands pressed up against her forehead, her elbows biting into her knees.

There’s a small silence as she huffs, leaning back in her seat, looking back to the doors, biting her lip, bouncing her knee up and down as she grasps the side of the shitty plastic chair, waiting for something to happen.

“What’s going on, Gerri?” He asks her quietly.

“What’s going on with what?” She asks distractedly, her eyes boring into the doors now.

“With Roman,” he confirms. “With you and Roman.”

“Nothing’s going on with me and Roman. He’s in there, potentially fucking dying and I’m sitting out here completely fucking helpless. That’s what’s going on,” she answers angrily, still staring at the door.

“You’re pretty distraught for a mentor, Gerri,” he observes quietly, clearing this throat before lowering his volume even further. “We saw you from the boat.”

“Saw what? Me talking to an unconscious colleague to try and wake him like a trained first aider told me to do?” She responds irritably.

_How dare he talk about this now? Question her now. When Roman could be lying in there just declared fucking dead but yet he’s out here trying to press her about this._

“We saw more than that.”

“You didn’t see fucking anything,” she turns around to him seething. “My back was to you all. You saw me trying to comfort Roman to try and wake him. Shouldn’t I have done that? Does it break the fucking Waystar protocol? Don’t show emotion even when someone’s potentially dying?” She asks him enraged.

“Gerri. What I can see is that right now and on the boat, you’re being overly defensive. That you wouldn’t be reacting this way if there wasn’t something more going on,” he raises an eyebrow, remaining completely calm in the face of her outrage.

“How would you feel if it was Ken in there?” She challenges loudly. “Blood dripping from his head down a ramp, a medic telling you he had a weak pulse, a helicopter on the way to emergency airlift him out. Would you not care for him? Would you not want to help? Worry for him? Do everything you could think of?” She asks bitterly.

“Yeah, I would. But I love Ken as if he were my own. He’s always been my favourite, since he was a child. You, Gerri, though, never had favourites. Sure, Roman amused you the most of them all but ultimately you thought they were brats; didn’t bat an eyelid at any of them. Not like me, I took Ken under my wing. You tried a little with Shiv, but you were never maternal with her. You know it’s not the same relationship,” he reasons, the home truths becoming too much for Gerri, her head ducking back into her hands as she sighs deeply.

“We thought you just took him under your wing,” Frank continues. “That you saw some potential there, and he seemed to be really responding to it. Is that the reason he’s responding to it?” He asks accusingly with an arched eyebrow.

“It’s not like that,” she bites. “I’m not fucking him into being good at his job.”

“Then what the fuck is it, Gerri?” He asks as she leans back, beginning to break, looking at him pleadingly so she doesn’t have to do this; she shakes her head and looks down at her lap.

“After all these years,” he shakes his head. “After the contact we still kept when I was fired. After the alliance we’ve had through the years, staying on each other’s side, never throwing each other under the bus, do you really not trust me? You really think I would betray you now?” He asks wounded, his voice harsh.

“You were always devoted to Logan,” she argues quietly.

“I was, as were you, and yet I’ve betrayed Logan in the past. I'm still ready to betray Logan. I’ve never betrayed you. Even when I took the hit with the vote of no confidence, and you remained fucking neutral when you were supposed to speak up. I’ve never betrayed you. We made that pact long ago. You’re the only one I trust in there,” he declares softly, his words hanging heavily over her head, her guilt at having so much doubt in him.

 _He had never ever given her reason to think he would betray her. They had always been on the same wavelength when it came to Waystar and Logan._ _I mean had they not begun their conspiring about Logan not 10 minutes after she was appointed his Interim CEO on the yacht._ _He had mirrored her every view when she had ever suspected or worried about anything in the company. He always shared her views, shared her strategy, kept her on the straight and narrow. He was like a big brother. Always keeping her safe. Always keeping her solid. She had been the one to betray him in the vote of no confidence, but they both knew that was just business. That he would have done the same if the roles were reversed. It hadn’t stopped her feeling guilty though. Hadn’t stopped them from keeping in contact, on sharing all the information they gathered from their enemy camps with each other; always allies._ _He surely wouldn't betray her over something personal too._

“It wasn’t supposed to happen,” she whispers, looking straight ahead at the double doors. “I was taking him under my wing, giving him some direction and it just,” her voice cracks, a tear escaping her eye as she rubs it away furiously, sitting back in her chair. “It shifted.”

He sighs, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and rubbing gently.

“I love him, Frank,” she tells him resolutely, looking around to him. “It wasn’t a ploy or a business move. I fell for him. I love him and he loves me, and now,” her voice cracks again, tears flowing as she bows her head, bringing her hands up to her face as he rubs her back harder. “Fuck. What if he doesn’t make it?” She asks him desperately.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Frank soothes. “He’ll make it.”

Her mind goes blank for a moment as the silence becomes thick, looking back up to the doors.

_Holy shit, she had told someone else._

“Only Karolina knows. She guessed,” Gerri divulges quietly.

“How longs it been going on for?”

“We spent more time together in Japan. Something shifted when he was at management training and it progressed from there. Officially, on the yacht in Croatia.”

He sighs deeply, resuming his rubbing of her back, considering the length that amounted.

“Roman though?” He asks confusedly, exasperated as he shakes his head, as she becomes instantly offended.

“Don’t give me that, Frank. You date girls half his age,” she fires back quickly.

“Not his age. I just meant fucking Roman. Roman who is a perpetual pain in the fucking ass, schoolboy, immature smart ass, who doesn’t know when to shut the fuck up,” he laughs.

“You and I both know there’s more to him than that. He’s sensitive. Wounded. Deep. Thoughtful. All that other shit is just a front. You know he goes a lot deeper than that. You told me that yourself when you were both in California,” she reasons with him.

“Yeah, I’m not saying he’s not deep down a good kid, what I mean is that with you? You're mature, Gerri. You like to control things. You like to be serious about your job; about your life. Roman’s a perpetual fuck around.”

“And that’s the problem, Frank. I’ve been so serious about everything for so long that I forgot who I was. I forgot who fucking fun Gerri from a shitty little town in Hicksville was. I forgot how to have fucking fun. You saw me last night. Did you ever think you would ever see that? He’s brought that out in me. He makes me happy,” she admits, taking a deep breath and looking up to the ceiling, blinking her tears away.

“True. I’ve never seen you let loose like that,” he nods.

“And he needs someone to care for him, to love him. And I am that person,” she breathes as she looks back down to Frank, her eyes filling.

“Fuck,” Frank puffs. “Do you know what you’re doing here? Logan’s going to flip the fuck out. He’ll have you fired. He’ll split you up. He’ll think it’s a scheme to overthrow him,” Frank tells her worried.

“I know. I know that,” she sighs. “We have a plan,” she tells him seriously, as he raises a sceptical eyebrow. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

He sighs, unsure whether to press her further, watching as she looks back to the double doors, wiping her cheek again, decides to let it go.

“Does Cyd and Joan suspect then?” She asks reticently.

“Yeah. They saw what I saw. Cyd’s loyal to you though. I don’t see her telling anyone, though she will definitely have questions. And Joan’s an old romantic,” he smiles.

“What the fuck have I done?” She sighs, leaning back again, closing her eyes as she shakes her head.

“Had a human reaction?” He ventures lightly with a laugh.

“I can’t deal with all this just now. I just need to know he’s okay.”

Frank sighs, never having seen Gerri like this. Never having seen her completely rattled, not with boar on the floor, not with every scandal that’s ever happened, not even when her husband died.

“How about I speak to Joan and Cyd? Get them on side.”

“You won’t tell anyone?” She asks, looking to him, her eyes worried.

“Fuck no. They wouldn’t believe me if I did,” he groans in pain, standing up to go look for Cyd and Joan.

****

“Okay. So, run this by me one more time,” Cyd says with her jaw clenching, coffee in her hand. “You’ve been in an actual _adult_ relationship with Roman for what? Five months?” She asks, her eyes sceptical.

“Yes,” Gerri whispers furiously, “now would you keep your voice down.”

Joan starts giggling, sipping her coffee, as Cyd leans back in her seat, narrowing her eyes.

“I don’t get it,” Cyd shrugs, pursing her lips.

“You don’t have to get it,” Gerri fires back dryly.

“I’m not going to tell anyone, I’m just trying to wrap my head around it,” Cyd drones, taking a sip of her coffee. “Like how does it work? Does he like sit and watch cartoons and you make him a snack? Tuck him into bed at night with his teddy bear? Help him with his homework? What’s the deal?”

“No, Cyd. I’m not his mom,” Gerri snaps.

“Huh,” Cyd huffs. “So, you just do normal things? Go for dinner? Watch TV? What?”

“Oh my god, Cyd. Yes. We can’t go out in public because it’s a fucking secret but yeah, we watch TV and do normal things, so can you stop now. You’re as bad as Roman,” Gerri whispers quickly, trying to squash Cyd’s incessant questions.

“I think it’s sweet,” Joan declares, as Frank comes back and plonks down next to her.

“I called Logan and Ken. Ken’s going to call Connor and Shiv. They’ll decide what to do once we have an update. Logan got Jacob to email over some of Roman’s medical details which I passed onto the receptionist so that’s something,” he huffs, taking his coffee from Joan.

Cyd, however, is still eying up Gerri; still trying to work out this conundrum.

“It’s the sex, isn’t it? I’d always heard he couldn’t really you know… perform though,” Cyd whispers, widening her eyes expectantly.

“Good god,” Gerri sighs, closing her eyes, throwing her head back to look at the ceiling.

“Jesus Christ,” Frank groans, shifting in his seat uncomfortably.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s perfectly natural, even at our age,” Joan calmly reasons, taking another sip. “Me and my Ritchie found it gets even better, the-,” she continues before Cyd cuts her off.

“So, is that it? The sex? Can he like you know,” she nods her head towards Gerri’s thighs.

“It’s none of your business, and no that’s not why so can you fucking cut it out. I’m not having this conversation anymore,” Gerri explodes.

“Touchy,” Cyd growls with a grin, taking a sip of her coffee, as the doors swing open, a doctor coming out.

“Uhm… Roman Roy’s relative?” He shouts, looking around the room as they all jump up harrowing towards him as his eyes widen.

“Yeah. How is he? Is he?” Gerri asks quickly unable to finish the sentence, too afraid of the answer, gulping as the nausea begins to take over her.

“He’s stable for the moment,” the doctor divulges, as they all sigh. “He’s been touch and go. We suspect at the minimum a major concussion, though miraculously he had no broken bones apart from his nose, just a few fractures. He’s just back from getting an array of scans which we’re going to look at just now to determine any neurological structural damage. He’s going to have to remain here under surveillance as he’s still unconscious, hasn’t been able to wake up. We’re not sure if it’s temporary or a coma, but time will tell,” the doctor finishes looking at all of their worried faces.

“Okay, so uhm… is it serious?” Gerri asks first.

“We’re not sure yet. We need to look properly into all the information we’ve gathered so far, maybe organise some follow up tests. Time will tell. Right now, he needs to rest. We need to try and concentrate on getting him any treatment he needs,” the doctor reveals.

“Do you know who his power of attorney is?”

“No, but I just passed some information over to your receptionist so it should be there. I would imagine it’s his dad. Maybe one of his siblings,” Frank shrugs.

“Okay, I’ll check that out,” the doctor says, flipping over a piece of paper on his clipboard.

“Can we see him?” Cyd asks quickly.

“As I said he needs to rest. One of you can go in, but he doesn’t need the constant activity around him just now,” the doctor reveals as they all look to each other.

“How long until you might know more?” Frank asks.

“It could be hours until we have any certainty. We need to cover every possibility here,” the doctor nods his head, clutching the clipboard to his chest.

“Thank you,” Joan smiles as the doctor begins to walk away.

“Okay, so obviously Gerri is going in,” Frank huffs, looking around as everyone nods in agreement, Gerri sighing in relief.

“Have you told the others?” Gerri asks.

“Yeah, they’re back at the villa waiting for an update,” Cyd nods.

“Maybe you guys should go back there then. I’ll call you if anything happens,” Gerri reassures, throwing her purse over her shoulder.

“You don’t want one of us to stay, just in case?” Frank asks kindly, rubbing her arm.

“No, I’ll call if anything changes.”

“Do you want us to bring you down some clothes? You’re going to end up sick,” Joan fusses gently.

“If you’re able to. That would be great,” Gerri forces a smile, her heartbeat speeding up at the prospect of seeing Roman again.

“Call if you need anything,” Frank smiles, leaning down to kiss her cheek, as Cyd and Joan offer a hug.

****

She’s nervous to go into the room when the young nurse leads her to it. Her fists contracting and relaxing as she tries to control her breathing.

“Here you go,” the nurse smiles gently as she opens the door, allowing Gerri to enter.

She’s not prepared for how he looks, taking one step in and halting immediately. He looks so fragile, lying on the bed, in the hospital nightgown, an oxygen mask covering his face, bruising and scrapes surrounding his nose, scratches and patches randomly scattered over his arms, a large bandage wrapped around his head.

“You can just take a seat over there,” the nurse encourages, gesturing to the seat next to the bed. “Someone should probably be in soon to check up on everything, but they usually encourage relatives to talk to the patient,” she tells her softly.

“Thank you,” Gerri chokes out, taking her purse off her shoulder, venturing slowly over to his bed, placing her purse on the chair before moving over to him, slowly reaching her hand out to touch his hand. She’s relieved that his hand is still warm and soft; she doesn’t know why she had expected it to be cold. She looks up to his scratched face, his eyes beginning to blacken as his head tilts to the side, resting on the pillow.

“Roman, honey,” she whispers, about to move her hand up to stroke through his hair, retracting it quickly when she realises she might touch his bandage, move it out of place, do something to fuck up some kind of recovery. She settles her hand on his forearm instead, running up and down it, trying to avoid any of the scratches or patches, not wishing to hurt him.

“I’m here, Rome. I’m here,” she whispers, tears coming to her eyes as she inverts her lips, trying to hold it in, looking up to the ceiling, sniffing hard as she wills them not to fall.

“The doctor said you’re stable,” she chokes out, looking back down at him, trying to force a smile, as though he can see her, as though her feigned confidence would stop him becoming frightened or panicked. She takes in a deep breath, looking behind her at the seat, before letting him go, picking up the seat to move it right next to him, hardly any room for her legs, wanting to ensure that if he even peeps an eye open, he will see her; that she will see it happen.

She slinks into the seat, taking his hand again in both of hers as she leans forward, bringing it to her lips as she holds it there, pecking every so often, taking in his scent.

“You’re such a fucking moron, Roman. You’ve scared me half to death,” she breathes against his hand, her eyes never leaving his eyelids. “Fuck are you going to get it from me when you wake up,” she whispers, pecking the back of his hand again.

She sits silently for a long time again, unsure what else to say, unsure if he’s going to pull through this. She chances a glance at the monitor, reading his heart rate, watching as the lines regularly move up, the consistent beeping already telling her that, but a secondary sense necessary to confirm it before she looks back to his eyes quickly, his rising and falling chest in her peripheral anyway.

“You have to wake up,” she pleads quietly, pushing her nose into his hand now, her breath rushing against it. “We hadn’t even started yet, Rome… we were supposed to tell everyone, you were supposed to come to my apartment. I was fully prepared for you going around and touching all my things, picking them up and putting them back incorrectly and I followed you putting them back in the right place; judging me for every ornament, every painting. I was anticipating finding out what fucking drivel you would come up with to describe it all,” she laughs a little, looking for any sign of life.

“We were supposed to plan a vacation for after your dad went away. We hadn’t even got to discuss where to. We could go somewhere warm, go to a tropical paradise, drink too much, fuck on the beach. Or we could go to some big city in Europe and get lost again. You probably would have been there before. Could show me some wild fucking underground tunnel or something, and I could get mad at you for scaring me again. You would tell me some story of some fucking bachelor party you had went to there and who got a hand job from the fucking president,” she laughs, her eyes filling a little, as she pauses, the smiling wiping off her face.

“We were going to go to Rome for my birthday, Rome. Eat spaghetti like in Lady and the Tramp. Go to all the museums whilst you whined the whole way through. Then you’d embarrass me by making me throw a coin in the Trevi fountain. Sprint up the Spanish steps ahead of me whilst I followed you at snail pace. I’m sure you’d cheer me on from the top, attracting all kinds of attention,” she laughs a little, her tears flowing as she allows one hand to pull away from his to wipe her cheeks. “I still want to go, honey. I want to go with you. So, you’re going to have to wake up. It wouldn’t be the same without you,” she offers a forced smile, her face dropping as he still doesn’t respond.

She can feel the rush of emotion coming, the realisation that he might never wake up. He might never see inside her apartment. That they may never take the vacation to the beach or to some city. That she wouldn’t be celebrating her birthday in Rome with him. That he may not leave this hospital room alive. It all becomes too much as the tears start to flow freely, her hands not quick enough to erase them before they cover her face again. Eventually she buries her palms in her eyes, removing her glasses as they fall onto her lap.

And she sobs.

Sobs harder than she ever remembers sobbing before. No noise even comes from within her as her chest wracks with pain, releasing through her open mouth; the heel of her palms buried in her eye sockets as she fails to keep it all in anymore. Her body convulsing as she finally gets her voice back, deep wails escaping her every few seconds. Eventually she peeks out behind her hands, brushing the tears away, wiping her nose as she looks at his face, his angelic stagnant face, not a sound escaping him; the quietest he’s ever been.

Even in his sleep he makes noise, is restless. Breathes out huge rushes sometimes into the back of her neck, tightens his hold around her every so often, mumbles in his sleep. He’s always making some kind of sound, fidgeting at some point. His calm form makes her feel uneasy, makes her afraid that he’s no longer in there, already gone from her, and she can’t take it.

“Roman, baby,” she cries out, taking his hand again. “Please don’t go,” she pleads. “Please.”

Her sobs continuing as her chest heaves, his held hand pressed into her forehead until she tries to calm down again, exhausted from crying, her face clammy from her tears.

She looks up to him again, trying to take in every single part of his face; memorising the shape of his jaw, the size of his eyebrows, the alignment of his stubble, the thickness of his lips, the shape of his nose.

She looks at his forehead, recalling the lines that from there whenever his eyebrows rise when he’s shocked, when he’s impressed, when he’s hurt.

She looks at his eyelids, aware that those light brown pupils are under there, how dark they turn whenever he is aroused; a differing scale dependent on how hard and long he’s been flirting with her. How they become so weak whenever he’s worried for her, how he reveals every emotion so easily with that one look. His mind obviously whirring into thinking of how to nurture her; taking her to the bunker that night just so she would sleep, negotiating a deal with her into his pyjamas so that she would relax when she insisted on doing work at his apartment, how he had defended her on the yacht when it looked like she was the next to walk the plank. His sensitivity, care, and love all wrapped up into one look. A look reserved for her, that no one else would understand.

She looks to his lips, realising how unusual they are without his perpetual smirk that lives there. She thinks of how it always accompanies whatever inappropriate jokes he’s just attempted; the ones that make her wince, the ones that make her chuckle, the ones that turn her on, the ones that make her hit him with a pillow.

She notes his Adam’s apple, realising that she would never hear his voice again. Never hear him jibing her, his cheeky retorts, his complaining about Frank, his constant expletives, his awkward giggle when he was saying something edgy, his breathy moans when he was buried inside her, his soft voice when he was revealing his heart, his feelings, his secret thoughts to her, and his words of love and adoration. She feels her heart break in two.

She leans forward even closer, bringing his hand down to her lips again as she sighs against it.

“I want you to know,” she starts shakily. “That you’ve been the light of my life,” she smiles against his hand, her breath hitching. “That you’ve reminded me of who I was, of who I want to be, and shown me a path for how to get there again. You gave me that gift that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay,” she clears her throat, it becoming too croaky as her throat closes up, her tears filling up in her eyes again. “And I love you my Rome, every single part of you with all my heart,” she whispers again before standing up, leaning over his body slowly so she could place a gentle kiss on his warm, dry lips. “With all my heart,” she repeats, hovering over his lips as she pecks again before sitting down, her body exhausted as her eyes continue to stalk his, pleading for any sign of movement that never comes. She leans back in the chair, sighing deeply, one of her hands remaining in his as she tries to relax her body, tries to think positively.

For the next while all she does is sit there, barely making a noise, the beeping of the machine moving in and out of becoming loud and quiet as she tunes in and out of her surroundings. She barely thinks she blinks as she stares at him, her glasses back on her face, her cheeks dry, her consciousness coming and going as her chest continues to rise and fall without her realising. She only moves her thumb, grazing it across his hand every so often, feeling his warmth to further prove he’s not gone yet, that he’s still fighting to be here; to remind him that she’s still here with him, that she’s not going to leave him either.

Eventually, the doctor comes in with a nurse, her hand retracting instinctually from his as she whips around quickly with a jump, watching as the nurse offers a smile moving quickly to fiddle with the machinery.

“Any change?” The doctor from earlier asks with a tight smile, hands holding an array of papers.

“No, nothing. Is there any update?” She croaks hopefully.

“Everything so far looks normal but we’re going to get him in for a CT scan just to check the blood flow. Whilst everything structurally looks intact with both his body and brain structure at the moment, we need to check that the blood flow in his brain is still normal,” he smiles. “We’re going to take him down for that just now.”

“Okay, so apart from that everything looks okay?” She asks hopefully.

“He’s lucky that he didn’t end up with anything majorly irreparably broken. I’ve seen accidents like that result in broken spines, some people never able to walk again. Major surgeries with pins to fix broken limbs. However, whilst everything may seem structurally sound at the moment, a decrease in blood flow to a brain area can cause worse problems in itself. If certain parts of the brain don’t get steady blood flow, it can damage brain function of different things dependent on the area. Roman took a hit to his anterior, so,” he continues as Gerri interrupts.

“Anterior?”

“Sorry. The front. He hit the front and potentially the front side of his head it seems. So, it’s his frontal lobe we would be most worried about. Perhaps his temporal lobe at the side also,” the doctor divulges.

“And what does that effect?”

“The frontal lobe deals with anything from motor storage to personality to emotionality, also containing Broca’s area which deals with language production. Then the Temporal lobe is information retrieval, some speech, expressed behaviour, though mainly memory, usually short term. Considering it is a left temporal lesion, it would be an impairment of recalling verbal material if damaged. The right side would be having been non-verbal, such as paintings or music,” the doctor explains.

“So, this could happen if there is damage there?” She tries to confirm. “If blood hasn’t hit that area for a certain amount of time, it could damage all that?”

“Yeah, which is why we’re doing a CT scan and want to have a good look at the blood flow, ensure everything is still working soundly,” he smiles. “It will be further confirmed when he wakes by verbal tests. Just questions about his memory, reasoning tests when he’s able to. That sort of thing.”

“Okay,” she breathes, looking back around to Roman. “Is there a reason he hasn’t woken yet? Do you think he will wake?”

“He’s been through a lot of trauma. His vitals were pretty poor when he got here. He’s either recovering, or maybe resting, or still fighting,” the doctor reasons with a shrug. “Only time will tell, but we’re doing everything we can, uh, sorry I didn’t catch your name,” he winces, looking at her awkwardly.

“Gerri,” she offers with a smile.

“Michael,” he offers in return, furrowing his eyebrows as he sifts through the paper in his arms with a frown. “You wouldn’t be uhm… Geraldine, uhm, hold on I have it here,” he groans, trying to pull a sheet of paper out. “Uhm… Kellman? Would you?” As she frowns sceptically, looking at him.

“Uhm… yes I am,” she offers slowly, her eyes narrowing.

“Oh, okay. Great. It’s just because you all said you didn’t know who was in the POA earlier,” he chuckles, shaking his head. “Would you like to make some decisions now in relation to that or would you like more time?”

“POA?” She breathes, her lip curling in confusion.

“Power of Attorney,” he affirms.

“No, I know what it means. I’m a lawyer, but why would I be making decisions because of that?” She purses her lips, narrowing her eyes sceptically.

“Because you’re listed in Mr Roy’s Power of Attorney as his agent, including in the event of his incapacitation and his medical treatment which is currently the case,” he responds lightly.

“I can’t be,” she whispers.

“Uhm,” he looks down at his paper, pulling out the photocopied piece of paper in question. “Yes, uhm, Geraldine Kellman. Signed in February of this year. Did he not inform you? Sorry, I assumed you were his partner? I should have asked.”

“I…,” she hesitates, looking back at Roman. “Yes, I’m his partner, but no one knows that, and I trust that will fall under Mr Roy’s doctor/patient confidentiality,” she warns abruptly.

“Yes, ma’am. I can give you some time to consider your options then. It’s just the usual things like whether you would like a DNR in place,” he begins before she cuts him off.

“Absolutely not,” she fires at him quickly.

“Okay,” he sings, scribbling something down quickly. “Is there any treatment you don’t wish him to have, such as blood transfusions, procedures due to religious reasons, anything like that?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Do everything you have to do and use the best equipment, the best whatever you have, money is no issue,” she states firmly.

“We’ll run any future procedures by you anyway,” he smiles, holding his papers up to his chest again. “We’re going to take him down for that CT scan now if you want to maybe go and get a coffee or something, by the time we get him prepped, it could take anything from an hour to an hour and a half before he returns,” he explains as she stands up, picking up her purse on the way.

“Okay,” she breathes, taking a last look at him, taking his hand and squeezing it before leaning over to kiss his cheek.

“We won’t be long,” he smiles as she exits the room.

****

Her head is buzzing with all the information laid out to her as she works at getting a non-vending machine coffee at the canteen in the hospital, taking it directly back up to his room in the off chance of his early arrival back, wanting someone to be there if he woke.

_It had been a lot to take in._

_Power of Attorney? It was so out of left field. She wonders why he never told her. And he did it back in February? That would have been maybe just after Austria? Maybe before management training? She’s not sure, would need to check her diary for the timeline. But it must have been before anything had really shifted. Had his crush on her been before she had tried to take him under her wing? They had obviously spent more time together in Japan, worked together on the proxy battle, even had that weird moment in Austria when she had done up his buttons, but enough to name her on his power of attorney? She wonders if he named her for his finances too. It was either that his crush was severe by that point, or that his trust in her had grown dramatically in that time. He did say he had Borderline and clung to anyone who showed him any interest. Maybe this was a common move for him when he started becoming infatuated. Maybe Tabitha was before her._

_But then there was this potential incapacitation to consider. Would she have control over that too if he lost some of his brain functions. She would need to get a hold of that document, find out what the fuck was in it. The thought of him losing any of those things the doctor had listed terrified her._

_What had the doctor said he could lose?_

_His motor skills? The idea of him having to learn how to do everything again as though he was a toddler; to grasp, to walk, to run. It was horrifying. But it was fixable. She had heard of physiotherapies and things you could do to fix that. It wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario._

_But he had said language and speech too, whilst that was something that could also be potentially fixed, the idea of his speech going and having to relearn it was grim._

_The doctor had cited that his memory could be affected also. What if he didn’t remember what happened and she had to describe what she had seen? What if he couldn’t remember stupid things like their night in London? The thought of him forgetting their shared experience there was devastating, something she would never wish for him. But the doctor had said it was usually the short term; what if it was the long term? What if he forgot they were in a relationship? The thought of it makes her stomach sink, the coffee jumping back up her oesophagus as she forces it back down. What if he forgot everything? What if he had no idea who she was? Who he was? What would she do then? She has no fucking idea how she would handle that. Logan would probably try and take over, she having to use the power of attorney he had given her to fight it._

_But the doctor had also said there could be personality and emotionality issues. She’d heard of that before. Of people changing. Becoming angrier, more irritable, more depressed. She didn’t want her Roman to change. His personality was his biggest thing. His cheekiness, with his vulnerability, not a harmful bone in his body. It’s what she loved most about him._

_She had to stop burrowing down this rabbit hole, had to stop delving into these ‘what if’s’. She would cross any issues if they arose. She had to look at the positive. The news was fractures, completely lucky that he hadn’t permanently damaged his body. That his brain structurally seemed unharmed at first glance. The doctor had said when he wakes, not if he wakes. He had seemed confident in his awakening. They would get this CT scan and would deal with anything when he woke up. The one thing she knew for sure was that whatever came up, whatever consequence, she was here. She wasn’t going anywhere. She was locked in for the long haul. Whatever arose, they would face together no matter what._

****

He had come back not long after, wheeled in by two nurse aides who didn’t give much information on when a doctor would be in to disclose some results.

She settled quickly this time, watching him intently as she had returned to her previous position; had only run out to meet Frank quickly to get her clothes, giving him a brief update of what she knew, before running back in, changing into whatever clothing Joan had picked out for her before settling back in. She had sat there for a while, his hand back in hers.

It had been hours now since it had happened, almost 11pm and she still hadn’t eaten, still had no intention of sleeping despite how much her body was protesting, particularly against this uncomfortable chair.

She only takes her eyes off him for a second, to rub her own as tiredness starts to consume her, when his eyes begin moving. She looks back at him with a sigh, noting the brief motion, his muscles slightly above his eyeballs jittering around as a sign of some small movement.

“Roman,” she barks abruptly, jumping up, leaning over him, squeezing his hand. “Rome,” she repeats gently as she hovers over his face, tracing her other hand over his cheek. “Wake up, honey.”

His eyes open slowly, peeking out as his face contorts a little, adjusting to the light perhaps. He opens them a little wider, taking her in, his eyebrows furrowing as she lets out the breath she wasn’t aware she was holding in, a huge grin forming on her lips.

“Hey,” she whispers gently.

“Gerri?” He groans out, completely disoriented.

_Thank fuck he remembers her. Thank whatever fucking god, every fucking god._

“Yeah, honey,” she smiles as he frowns even harder, looking at her and the room as though it were completely foreign. “How are you feeling?”

“Like fucking shit,” he groans, his expression still grimacing. “Where am I?” He groans looking around.

“You’re in the hospital. You had an accident on the water skis. Do you remember that?”

“Wait? In Scotland?” He asks confused. “Last I remember I was in military school?”

Her breath hitches, her heart stops.

_Military school. Fucking military school. That was 25 fucking years ago._

Her eyes start watering as she bites her lip.

“No, Rome,” she croaks, her breath hitching as her emotion consumes her. “No-,” she tries to continue before he interrupts her with a wide grin, his eyes glistening with mischief.

“I’m kidding, babe,” he chuckles a little.

“What?” She asks softly, still surprised and confused.

“I was messing with you, I remember going out on the boat,” he smiles impishly. “I don’t really remember the accident though.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” She pulls back, angrily scoffing, letting go of his hand as she pushes her tears away.

“What the fuck happened to me?” He asks tired, trying to look down at his body.

“Roman, I could fucking strangle you,” she groans frustrated, her hand returning to take his.

_The one fucking time she would fucking accept him being an absolute fucking asshole, a mean fucking prank at the completely wrong moment was the most Roman thing she’s ever seen. But she’s too fucking relieved that he was awake and seemed to be relatively lucid to remain angry._

“You fell onto the ramp, hit your head,” she tells him, moving her hand to rub against his cheek. “You fucking scared the living shit out of me,” she divulges with a sigh.

“So, this is what I need to do to get your attention,” he smiles a little, his eyes heavy.

“If that was your plan it fucking worked,” she groans, the smile still not leaving her face.

“Nah, I wouldn’t do that to you,” he closes his eyes, taking a deep breath, tightening his hand around hers. “Why?” He peeks an eye open playfully. “Did you throw yourself on my body, crying and begging for me to stay with you, declaring your undying love for me like in a movie?” He chuckles, closing his eyes again.

“Something like that,” she breathes, moving her hand to the crown of his head where she knows there’s no damage, nothing to hurt him, tracing her fingers in his scalp.

“Do I have cool as fuck badassed Rockstar fucking scars now? Am I like at least 50% more fuckable?” He breathes, his eyes still closed as she shakes her head smiling.

“Oh yeah,” she offers sarcastically. “It was a real turn off watching you almost die but the cool scar turned me right back on. Completely worth it,” she tries to jest, not really having the heart to joke about it quite yet though she’s trying for him, though stops stroking his head as she considers it.

“No, don’t stop,” he whispers softly, squeezing her hand, as she smiles again, resuming her petting.

“I should go get a doctor so they can check you over. They’ll want to ask you questions,” she tells him, no indication that she plans on moving away yet.

“But I’m tired,” he whispers.

“I should still get someone,” she whispers back, stroking his hair.

“One more minute,” he whispers. “Kiss it better,” he breathes again, as she smiles, leans up, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead, over his bandage. “Not there,” he whispers again, before puckering his lips, his eyes still closed. She smiles, leaning down to kiss him lightly, feeling his soft lips kiss her back gently.

 _Something she never thought she would feel again_.

“Love you, Gerri,” he whispers, his eyes opening briefly before fluttering shut again.

_Something she never thought she would hear again._

Her heart mending quickly, her chest surging at how much she feels for him right now.

“I love you too, Rome,” she tells him resolutely. “So much,” she affirms, stroking his hair again. “Try and get some sleep now, baby, okay?”

“Don’t leave, though. Stay with me,” he whispers clinging onto her hand before he drifts off to sleep.

“Never,” she whispers back, leaning her forehead down to press against the uninjured side of his forehead, letting out a relieved sigh.


End file.
